Washington Books

THIS BOOK IS POWERFUL, ITS SHOCKING, AND IT IS ASPIRING. THERE IS NOTHING ON CHANNEL 11 THAT BRINGS THE HONEST, INSIGHTFUL, VERY REAL ACCOUNT THAT MR.DOUGLASS DOES IN HIS BOOK. FROM SLAVE TO FREE-MAN, THIS IS TRUELY AN AMERICAN SUCCESS. SKIP THE INTRO, AND JUMP INTO IT.

Douglass's second, and lengthier, narrative fills in many of the gaps left in his first autobiography: we learn about his mother, his siblings, and more details about his psychological transformation from brute to man. It's quite insightful, as Douglass is careful to relate each of his personal experiences to the innate evil of the peculiar instituition, for both the slave and the slave holder.

What are your impressions of Frederick Douglass? What would you say about Douglass observation that "conscience cannot stand much violence? Do you think it was possible to be a good slave owner?Why or why not? Why does Douglass view slaveholders as well as slaves as victims of slavery? Why is education incompatible with slavery? Why do you think the white children's attitude toward slavery is different from that of their parents? How would you describe Douglass attitude towards Mrs. Auld?

Having read a biography of Douglass many years ago, I thought I knew his story. Hearing through his pen was an entirely different matter. What a master of the language and insighful set of observations on human nature.

I am a man of many words, but words fail me in my endorsement of this book. The letter to his former master in the appendix is worth the price of the book by itself.

Standing in line at the Lincoln Memorial, a book beckoned to me that I previously hadn't seen before. The face of Frederick Douglas grabbed my attention; a man that I've respected for many years, encountering him mainly through my study of Abraham Lincoln. On the spur of the moment, I snatched up a copy of "My Bondage and My Freedom", and within a few days, my admiration in Frederick Douglass was transformed from interest to awe.

Frederick Douglass orginially penned his book as a response to people's accusations that someone as articulate and composed as he couldn't possibly be a former slave. With that goal in mind, Douglass wrote his memoirs, in a straight forward, powerful way. In the book, he painfully and honestly documents the path his early life took; the memories of being owned, how slaves coped during these times, and how he managed to pull himself out of it all.

While Douglass' life in itself is amazing, (as he describes the amazing process he undertook to learn how to read), what amazed me even more are Douglass' discourses that he sprinkles through the book, discussing relevant issues during the time. In one instance, he addresses the concern about why slaves simply didn't run away from their oppressive situations. It's almost as if you can actually hear the people talking to Douglass and he responding to them.

This book does not only tell the tale of a truly amazing American, but gives us a unique insight to the times. This book should be required reading in every high school in this country.

I've been a fan of PDR for years and years and think she creates the most wonderful characters. She's probably the master of the damaged hero (well maybe co-master with Gayle Wilson). Rarely has she disappointed me. I particularly enjoyed her latest offering because it was in the longer format that category fiction is denied.

This is a story of revenge, hatred, and old animosities made to come right by love, tolerance, reparation and forgiveness. By examining the heart and soul of a man tormented by a crime he perhaps did not truly commit (we are kept guessing), PDR is able to evoke the meaning of true love in both the sexual and non-sexual way. Rhys Hazard is a man who feels undeserving of love and comfort who has the great good fortune to meet a woman who can offer him both and by doing so achieves a level of love and completion for herself. Although events conspire against them, their regard for each other makes them complete.

Excellent story from a much admired author. Please can we have her next one soon?

Well written and touching. I laughed and I cried and at the end felt wonderful!

Read this one, you won't be sorry.

"Beloved, best-selling,romance author, Paula Detmer Riggs will win even more readers' hearts with her absolutely wonderful contemporary, NEVER WALK ALONE for Onyx in June 2003. Ms. Detmer Riggs known for dealing with tough issues in her storylines deftly handles several in this endearing novel. Millionaire mogul, Rhys Hazard decides to help save the flooded small town of Osuma, Washington by expanding his trucking empire there. Not intending to go there himself, Rhys is forced to return to his hometown and relive his tragic past when his trucking foreman is injured in a car crash. Rhys knows all about terrible car accidents since he caused one as a teenager which killed two young children and a schoolbus driver. Rhys was severely injured and sentenced to four years in prison. When bed-and-breakfast owner, Brina Sullivan first meets her new tenant, Rhys Hazard, she is instantly attracted to him despite his physical disability and brusque demeanor. Little does this divorced mother of two know that Rhys Hazard is really Mick Sullivan, her ex-husband's brother and the man responsible for her brother's death years ago. What a rare treat it is to find an author who is able to skillfully blend poignancy with passion. Like the Rogers and Hammerstein song, "Never Walk Alone" Paula Detmer Riggs' novel, NEVER WALK ALONE should become a classic!"
-Patricia Rouse, Rouse's Romance Readers Groups

To many of the residents of Osuma, Washington, the name Michael Sullivan means loathing. Fifteen years ago, he ran a red light, plowed into a school bus, and killed two students and the driver. Although he insisted the bus driver ran the light, Michael was convicted and served time. After his release his adopted father J.T. told him to leave town. An angry Michael never looked back.

Over the years, using the name Hazard, Michael built up a powerful hauling business, North Star Trucks, located in Phoenix. When his dad's company teeters on bankruptcy, he buys the firm to convert it into a northwest trucking firm. However, he is forced to take charge of the transition when his friend chosen to run the show is severely injured in a car wreck. In Osuma, Michael meets his young niece and nephew and the ex-wife of his brother. As the little girl hooks him, he and Brina Sullivan fall in love, but one of the three dead people from his accident is her brother.

NEVER WALK ALONE is at its best when the lead couple deals with their growing attraction to one another somewhat fostered by a little child who showers love on Michael. When the tale spins into a drug running intrigue, the subplot takes away from the heartfelt intensity of the prime theme of can Brina forgive the man she loves for killing someone else she cherished? Still this is a strong contemporary romance that leaves the audience to wonder if time can heal all wounds.

Harriet Klausner

This was an outstanding and emotional story of forgiveness and of learning to forgive yourself. It's about overcoming childhood problems and mistakes and forging ahead to find love and happiness again. It's not just a sappy romance story though, there's quite a lot of mystery, sabatoge, adventure and revenge involved too. I respected Rhys from the outset and couldn't help liking Brina and all the secondary characters (except John, of course). Their story captivated me and they'll remain in my thoughts for days to come.

Collins seamlessly blends believable characters, race relations and riveting American history into a page turner. I highly recommend it.

The author presents his tale during a forgotten struggle in American History. A gathering of WWI vets pushing their government for promised benefits. The characters in some instances famous Americans and others faceless and poor.
His female lead is a fascinating young Irish woman-beautiful, daring and intelligent. Collins' Nora brings us a unique view of Ireland and D.C. as she gropes her way through her first loves and a rebellious group of WW I veterans. She is unencumbered by America's racial morass and is attracted to a brilliant young African American man who was raised as white during his formative years. He is thrown out of his posh upbringing into the streets of D.C. He lives on his wits and dabbles in Marxism while supporting the veterans. I felt a link with Mark Twain's Huck Finn as this young man survives on his own in and around the capitol's many landmarks. The canoe trips down the Potomoc with the author's detailed understanding of the river topped off this wonderful book. It is captivating book that I couldn't put down. I hope Mr. Collins will give us more of Nora and her companions.

Many will enjoy Denis Collins's fine novel for the historical perspective: The cause and plight of the Bonus Army and the cameo portrayals of MacArthur, Eisenhower, et. al. Others, especially those familiar with Washington, D.C. and its history, will enjoy a return to the Capital, circa 1930s. I loved Mr. Collins's novel for the characters he creates and the tales he tells as he takes so many seemingly disparate events and weaves them into a plot.

Nora is a delight, and she beguiles the reader in much the same way she beguiles Walker and Sevareid. This mysterious Irish beauty, youth and innocense, tough and worldly, strides boldly through the story seeking the return of that which has been stolen from her. In her path, Walker, Sevareid, and the reader first try to figure her out, then fall for her without fully understanding why.

Mr. Collins is, first and foremost, a storyteller. He seems to lean on the stories of his past, true, anecdotal, mythical, and the result is a series of vignettes that stand alone as mini plots. Taken together, the reader is left with a grand story, the history, myth and love all cleverly mixed in a julep of The Depression, the Bonus Army, Washington and Nora and her loves.

I loved this book, couldn't wait to pick it up again every evening. The story is well told and the characters rich and alive. I was crazy about the brassy heroine, Nora, the intriguing Walker and the young Eric Sevareid (and their love triangle which dangles all kinds of interesting possibilities before the reader). Most of all, as an almost native of DC, I got to know a city I love in an entirely new light. The author makes DC in the 1930's come alive, from the characters living there at the time to the urban landscape and the banks of the Potomac River. Found it fascinating.

Washington, D.C., inspires a lot of excruciating writing, fictional and non-, of the "Let me tell you about this town..." sort, especially by scribblers whose chief goal in life has been to scrabble their way to and stay in the capital, however many broken fingernails and kneeholes it may cost.

In Nora's Army, however, D.C. native Denis Collins delivers a walloping novel that pierces to the core of the true city -- not the confabulation of conspiracy and ambition supposedly limned in myriad mounds of tripe masquerading as Washington novels, but a meaty story and engaging characters and an inventive plot and direct yet lyrical language redolent of the real Washington, the one that exists outside the media-manipulated template through which too many people have come to view the nation's capital.

By conjuring fictional yet genuine people and swirling them in his skull with historical figures and incontrovertible facts, Collins has built a book that stands with "Ragtime" and "Little Big Man" -- works of invention that deepen and improve on the reality they portray by illuminating it with imagination.

Into the warp of the story he unfurls Collins weaves bits of Washingtoniana -- Child's Restaurant, Hopfenmaier's rendering plant, Murder Bay, Swampoodle, alley dwellings, Griffith Stadium -- long lost to all but the most dedicated of local memories in a town overrun by people who think everybody else is, like them, from somewhere else.

But they're wrong. Denis Collins knows this so well, and he's written a book that honors his hometown as few have or could.

The reason I urge readers to buy two copies is because they're going want to keep a copy and have one to give to someone they know who appreciates great American writing.

-- Michael Dolan, author of "The American Porch: An Informal History of an Informal Place"

As someone who used to reside in Olympia, I enjoyed looking at all of the old photographs from Olympia. A well compiled little history. Book contains very little text, mostly pictures. For me, that's what I enjoy about history anyway.

This historic review of Olympia High School is great! If you like to learn about the history of Olympia (not only the school but the city too) this book keeps you turning the pages with so many wonderful pictures and great tidbits of information.

Brilliant piece of work! Whether or not you grew up in Olympia, attended OHS or know someone who did, this books is a must. So much history, and so many great pictures all packed into 125 pages. What a great gift.

This book brings back lots of memories. Our family has several generations and branches of people that attended and graduated from Olympia High School. Now we have another source to show people about our town and our families. Future generations will have a great time snickering at the outfits and hair styles. Love all the great photos of our town. Jim did a GREAT job. If you are a Bear or know one, get this book.

So many historic images, it's highly pictorial. Many pieces of history I never knew. What a great piece of work. I'm using it for Christmas gifts for family and friends.

If you prefer to journey off the beaten path, this is the book for you. Beyond the well-drawn characters and engrossing plot, the author draws you into the land so strongly that you can feel the weave of the ancient hills and valleys that knit northern Maine's most remote communities.

I picked up this book and could not put it down. Amy's story, and the parallel and intermingling stories, were funny and poignant, but it was the subflooring of Maine's rural culture that lent this book its solid foundation and its human appeal. Read it if you want a rare and special look into real lives, defined by real communities, that still exist today but are rapidly and sadly evaporating.

Very highly recommended.

I read this book in short bursts so that I could savor the characters. What fun. To really get the most from this book, I recommend reading The Funeral Makers first.

For the unabridged flavor of northern Maine, Cathie Pelletier delivers. I've read three of her books so far, and they've all been good. For a good story, I recommend them strongly.

This is the second book I've read by Cathie Pelletier and the story keeps getting better. The Funeral Maker being the first of the trilogy, I can't wait to read the third. These caracters just won't quit. What a great read when you just want to relax and have a good laugh. I will definitely read every book by this author and I dare say if you read one, you're hooked. Keep them coming.

What a way to spend the evening, sitting in a comfy chair with this book. It was especially good since I'd also read The Funeral Makers. I'm not going to stop until I've read all of Cathie Pelletier's books--it was a New Year's resolution.

While I have read extensively about World War II, my knowledge of World War I was limited. Now I have come to realize the immensity and horror of that great conflict. It is apparent Mr. Little has researched this conflict extensively, and has skillfully woven that research into an interesting and poignant story. His descriptions of the bloody trench warfare and the effects of artillery and the terrible destruction of human life are graphic and chilling. I will definitely recommend this book to my friends who are history buffs, and to the history teachers at the high school where I work.

One Step From Glory is a wonderful novel that tells a great story about an important time in our nation's history. The author presents a well-researched portrait of the people and events of 'The Great War'. Mr. Little writes almost as if he has first-hand experiences or perhaps those of a close friend or family member as he describes the events of war and emotions of the participants. I heartily recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys the interactions between history and its human participants.

Very interesting and informative. Brings WWI to life. You meet real people and experience real wartime conditions. Difficult to put the book down.

"ONE STEP FROM GLORY" IS AN UNIQUE PRESENTATION OF A WAR NOT POPULAR WITH MODERN HISTORICAL WRITERS. MR LITTLE HAS PROVIDED AN EXCELLENT ACCOUNT OF US INVOLMENT IN WWI WHILE ALLOWING US TO LIVE THE DRAMA OF WAR THROUGH THE LIVES OF REAL ORDINARY MEN. WE SEE THE JOBS OF THESE YOUNG MEN IN THE ARTILLERY, INFANTRY AND OUR NEW AIR FORCE AS EACH GROUP LEARNS WHAT IS REQUIRED TO FREE EUROPE FROM THE GRASP OF THE HUN.

"One Step From Glory" is a very good read with great attention paid to descriptive historic detail. The life of a novice soldier in World War I is fully portrayed. You'll have a meaningful picture of this pivotal war in U.S. history.

i was pleasantly surprised when i received the book...it was brand new... well taken care of...thanks for the good prompt service!

Great cookbook, very easy to folow the recipes. The things I have made all have been just great! I would recommed this cook book to anyone who enjoys good food.

A friend of mine got this for me for Christmas a few years ago, and I love it! In fact I've used it so much mine is completely falling apart. Every recipe I have tried is fantastic. My friend had it as well and went through before giving it to me and wrote comments on her favorite recipes which I thought was such a neat idea. You will not be disappointed with this cookbook! In fact I may have to make something from it for dinner tonight...

Wow, I can't believe there are only two reviews on this excellent cookbook. While I have to say that this cookbook is not for the beginner, it is quite useful for the intermediate and above cook.If you are planning a party for a small gathering, large gathering, or a wedding for 250 people( I'm a partime caterer and yes I do all the prep, cooking , presentation by myself), This cookbook is indispensable! I am constantly barraged by requests for the recipes for the items I served using this cookbook. Buy this book, read it cover to cover and you will have a indispensable source for your next party!

The Mac and Cheese recipe is a huge hit with everyone that has partaken. Great recipes for dinner parties, everyone from people with discriminating tastes to the average Joe will enjoy the meal. I'm just sad I don't entertain more and find an excuse to use the book more often! Maybe that should be my New Year's Resolution....

This book is great! I think that Anne (NOT MORROW) Lindbergh's books are way too out-of-print and that Amazon (hint, hint)should start getting more copies. It's about a group of families who can't leave the street where they live. They don't age and have been traveling since 1939. They are invisible to ordinary people. A boy 'sees'one of them and is invited to stay in Pineapple Place. But the founder of Pineapple Place, Mr. Sweeney, puts his foot down...

This book was first read to me by my fourth grade teacher and I instantly fell in love with it...I have read this book several times and needless to say I love it more and more everytime I read it... I think it is a great book that helps kids cope with issues that have become so common in our world today. I will graduate from college next year to become a teacher and will read this book to my students and hope that they will enjoy it just as much as I did when my teacher read it to me.

The book is about a boy who moves from Vermont because his parents have divorced. In his new town he doesn't have any friends, until he sees a street that begins on P Street that is invisible to almost everyone but him. The people who live on this street are very nice. At the beginning the book was a little boring, but when you got to the middle it started getting exciting and I could not put it down. Towards the end, the book was exciting and a little sad. The ending was happy and sad at the same time, depending upon who you are thinking about. My favorite part of the book was when there was a party in Pineapple Place and August gave strange gifts to each person living in Pineapple Place.

I received this book from an uncle at my Bat Mitzvah in 1983. I couldn't understand why he gave it to me. Then I read it and understood. This book is fabulous. When I became a teacher, this book was always the first "read-aloud" book of the year. No matter how old they were, they could never get enough of it! I even had kids writing stories of their own based on this book, taking the characters to new places! It is one of the best books about friendship that I have ever read.

This is one of Anne Spencer Lindbergh's most exciting novels. For any kid who has ever crawled to the back of a coat closet, hoping in vain that a portal to Narnia would suddenly appear, this is the novel that will get you out of the house and into the streets of your neighborhood, keeping up your quest. The idea (a recurring one in Lindbergh's excellent and hilarious stories) that August Brown, a not-so-perfect child living a not-so-perfect life, can stumble upon magic in the middle of all the unrelieved boredom of modern life is incredibly appealing. That the people who live in Pineapple Place are only visible to August Brown does not make them any less real and the knowledge that even those who live magical lives have troubles which an unmagical friend can help to solve is an incredible lesson. The writers Edward Eager and C.S. Lewis would be proud of their legacy continued in such a fun, contemporary context. Visit Pineapple Place today!

Portrait of an Artist is just that - a portrait of a powerful, unique artist. Refreshingly, for those of us who have an interest in art and some knowledge but are not familiar with technicalities, the book is very direct and honest. One comes away with the feeling they have met and experienced a fascinating woman - one who is not always pleasant and kind, but one who is always open and honest. Her art is used as a lens into her deepest feelings, although the only representations of her art are in photographs where she is posing in front of one of her paintings. Her devotion to her art was inspiring, although it seemed to overwhelm everything and everyone that surrounded her. I walk away from this book very glad to have met and experienced Georgia O'Keeffe, but also glad to have experienced her from a distance and not had to endure her intensity personally. This is a great compliment for a fascinating book.

For so many years to me, Georgia O'Keeffe was just a well-known woman artist who painted flowers. Thanks to this book I came away feeling that I got to truly know and admire this artist and now I can look at her pictures differently with a deeper understanding and appreciation for them. Thanks to this book I think I have learned to look at the beauty in nature in a different way and feel that this book has taught me much about people and truly opened my eyes in many ways to the world around me and made me curious about different areas of our wonderful country. Very enlightening in many ways and definitely worth reading.

There are parts of New Mexico that, if you know of the woman, just scream This is Georgia O'Keeffe Country. This honest and admiring biography lays out the story of this incredible woman who lived to age 99. That's a long, long, long life. Her life found its trajectory when, in 1916, a friend sent some of her drawings to renowned photographer Alfred Stieglitz. He proclaimed her to be "a woman on paper." Furious (as only O'Keeffe could be furious), she confronted him, became his lover, and eventually married him, initiating an emotional and artistic collaboration that endured until his death.
O'Keeffe became a feminist before the word was even invented. When she realized that it would be impossible to become her own person while working in his shadow, she established the pattern of spending 6 months with him in NY and 6 months on her own in New Mexico, a place she always referred to as her spiritual home. Stiegitz died in 1946, and O'Keeffe lived on for another incredible half a century.
If you have the opportunity to visit New Mexico, don't miss the O'Keeffe museum in Santa Fe - and my all means visit her home in Abiqueque. To say it's Georgia O'Keeffe country is to put it far too mildly.

When author Laurie Lisle advised the artist, Georgia O'Keeffe, that hers was a story Lisle "wanted to tell," O'Keeffe, as was her wont, elected not to participate but told Lisle, "you are welcome to what you find." ("Forward and Acknowledgments.") Lisle, equipped with a passion for her subject and steadfastness of purpose - qualities similar to those governing O'Keeffe's own work and life - pored through museum bulletins and exhibition catalogue notes, magazine and newspaper articles, memoirs about O'Keeffe's artistic peers (including her husband, photographer Alfred Stieglitz), and O'Keeffe's letters preserved in Yale's Beinecke Rare Book Library. She spoke with O'Keeffe's schoolmates, in-laws, and friends. And, of course, she viewed O'Keeffe's creations.

There is not one spot of color in this book except for the auburn and gold lettering on the jacket of my paperback. The sixteen pages of photographs in the book, only four of which show O'Keeffe posing with her art, are black-and-white. One imagines, had the artist participated in this project and accepted that a literary work, with an artist as its subject, could be as beautiful and fascinating as the flowers, skulls, rivers, and stones she captured in her own paintings, O'Keeffe would have appreciated the lack of color. For much of her life, O'Keeffe's signature garb was black with a touch of white, due to a belief that admirers ought to focus on the art, not the artist.

While reading this book, one obviously is tempted to take occasional breaks from Lisle's gorgeously plain, non-effusive prose to google O'Keeffe's paintings. After I read about O'Keeffe's initiation into the jet age, where she was surprised to peer down from her airplane window and "see so many rivers, tributaries, and deltas undulating through the earth's deserts" ("Chapter 13: Clouds"), I just had to view "It Was Red and Pink." However, this book clearly is not an art critique. Paintings are discussed insofar as they provide insight into O'Keeffe's mind, heart, and soul. Most of the time, while reading, I stayed far away from the computer. I was riveted by tales about family, femininity, marriage, the artist's apparent struggle between remaining dedicated to painting and perhaps having a baby, the conflict between how she and the public perceived her work, intimations of mortality, and a devotion to the splendors of New Mexico even after her eyesight failed.

I would recommend this book to anyone who relishes art, history, New Mexico, femininism, humanity, or just would love to read a great book.

Having just seen the Georgia Okeeffe exibition at the Phillips Gallery in Washington, DC, I had to run out and buy a biography to learn more about this incredible artist. This book gives deep personal insight to Ms O'keeffe's life and work.

Alaska is rarely included in Bigfoot books and Rob does a fine job of cataloging sightings in the Southeast part (Panhandle) of Alaska. He adds some good Northwest Native folklore as well as very good timelines and sighting location maps.

I give high praise to Mr. Alley for a job well done and may he write many more in the future!
This is the way to research and write about Bigfoot/Sasquatch, with facts and without contradictions or second guessing one's self!
Where I'm from, Maine, the French call Bigfoot "Loup Garou," which is french for "werewolf; wild beast."
I highly recommend this book. AAAAA+++++
Ken T. ~~

I've been caught-up in the whole Sasquatch/Cryptozoology phenomenon since Jr. High, and consider myself very well read on the subject; John Green, Rene Dahinden, Loren Coleman, etc. But found this particular book extremely interesting. I was aware of several remote sightings in our 49th state, but didn't realize how frequent the sightings, and the rich prospect of scientific breakthrough. I wouldn't be surprised if the final solving of this mystery occurs in Alaska. I did however expect more reports from British Columbia and Washington State, but past publications, and the numerous Internet websites cover those areas quite well. Stunning eyewitness accounts, and absorbing data. I can't wait for future works on the subject from Mr. Alley.

If you are seriously interested in bigfoot or if you just find the topic intriguing or if you are looking for a good casual read, then you need this book. Its well written and easy to read. It is limited in scope, spatially. The author only considers the raincoast region of NA. Yet, the author has a good geographic knowledge of the area and places everything in that context. For that reason, the author doesn't fall into the "I'll hinge all bets on the Patterson footage" pitfall that so many of these guys can't avoid. All-in-all its a very good book with Coleman's book pulling up second. Plus, you won't have to hide it when the neighbors come over. Let them read a few pages and get drawn in.

Great book, a lot of facts, a lot of information, interesting. A well roundes researcher as well as author. Eric J. Mazzi