South Carolina Books

The changes that have taken place in ordinary life - especially in medicine - from the middle of the 20th Century up to the present leave most Americans ignorant of what it was like to live in a time before antibiotice, anesthetics and even a good working knowledge of the human body. This little book brings home to anyone interested in life during the 19th century what it was like for both doctor and patient.

This is a book for specialized interests rather than a broad view of the period but that very fact insures that it provides details and ephemera that would ordinarily not be covered in more generalized works. I am very happy to add it to my library of the period.

I was really able to use this book on my recent trip to Charleston. I used it daily to select my fine dining experiences. She only writes about the finer establishments and boy are they fine. Unfortunately I had to leave, but I hope to re-create many of the great dishes with the recipes.

The Dolphins Of Hilton Head: Their Natural History by ecologist and conservation biologist Cara M. Gubbins is an informed and informative introduction to the fascinating life and world of dolphins, studying their feeding, socializing, communication, and much, much more. Black-and-white photographs enhance the adventurous and detailed, "reader friendly" text, making The Dolphins Of Hilton Head a truly exciting account which is most especially recommended for marine wildlife students in general, and dolphin enthusiasts in particular.

The Author, the Late Jim McAllister, was a journalist with The Greenville News, Greenville, SC. I knew about this book and had searched for it locally for several years. To my surprise, I found five of them on Amazon and bought three of them. It is a very neat book of amusing short stories or folk tales from the upstate area of South Carolina and a few across the border into North Carolina. I plan to keep one copy for myself and will give away the other two for someone else to enjoy. The book will make a great gift for a hospital patient or for anyone who enjoys reading.

I'M ONE OF THE ILLUSTRATORS OF THIS BOOK. I RECOMMEND THIS BOOK TO ANYONE LOOKING FOR AN ADVENTURE. THIS BOOK WILL TAKE YOU PLACES YOU ONLY IMAGINED. PICK UP ONE AND ENJOY THE TRIP!

Well researched and written. Includes personal tales of life in 3 favelas of Rio. I especially like the author's interest in the mechanisms permitting collaboration between local favela dwellers, rich citizens a few blocks away, drug traffickers, police and politicians.

Ms Anderson has done a wonderful job of weaving the threads of geography, politics, economics, history, religion, etc. into a solid cloth of Durham county history.

This book was well reasearched and has extensive endnotes that add a treasure trove of information additional to the text body. (In fact, my only negative critical comment about this book is that the author used endnotes instead of footnotes, causing one to either ignore the endnotes for later or risk carpal tunnel from flipping back and forth!)

Ms. Anderson delves into the social and economic complexities behind Durham's prosperity and its poverty -- which often shared time and space -- and she manages to humanize the complicated personalities who so greatly influenced the city's growth. The Dukes, Carrs, Mangums, etc. are well known to have been the driving busienss forces behind the tobacco and mill industries that made Durham properous, but it is refreshing to learn something of their personalities and their struggles.

Anyone who grew up in Durham knows what a huge contribution black business leaders made to the economic success of the area. This is the only book where I have seen the subject treated as a integral portion of the area's history and culture, and not something set apart from all other events and influences, outside the "white" history.

There are some wonderful photographs of historical buildings and people - both influencial and "just plain folks".

Every historical account has dry patches. I found two of them (albeit small) to be at the time frame around 1920-1940. I urge the reader to work through this as the information there is important to understanding the material that follows.

Despite the fact that I was born in Durham and lived in the area for over 30 years, I only developed a curiosity in the history of the county recently. As a native Durhamite, I found this book to be a wonderful education into the area. I believe a non-native would find it a very readable and fascinating view into the birth and growth of a Southern city that defied a lot of stereotypes and a lot of odds. To be honest, when I left the area Durham was headed on a downhill turn of high crime, strained race relations, poor schools and a wide gap between have and have nots -- many of the same problems the county faced at its inception. It will be interesting to see if the region manages to persevere with the same success as in the turn of the century.

Precise detailed listings, excellent index, should be in every rock-hounders back-pack. However, it's only failing are the rather crude maps. The maps would be more helpful if they included topographic elevation bars. But, all in all, a very delightful reference tome.

Jim Rooney writes with such homespun humor -- he draws on memories and life experiences and makes them all a pleasure to read.

Jim Rooney's my dad, and I'm glad!

This study should probably be on the shelf of anyone interested in early Medieval Europe.