Virginia Books

The information in this book allowed me to correct a very painful
condition and restore my mobility. What started out as a minor twinge in my low back turned into a serious problem because I thought that I could work out what I thought was a muscle cramp by walking without giving in to the discomfort. This was a big mistake as it resulted in the Psoas and Rectus Femoris muscles on one side becoming very painful and caused a sacral shear condition. This gave new meaning to my concept of pain. At this point I finally sought help from medical professionals. The sacral shear condition kept recurring until the muscle spasm was corrected, so I made multiple visits to a chiropractor and a DO. Once the muscle spasm was cleared up I was left with the original symptom. The medical professionals stated that I just had low back pain and there was nothing they could do to correct it. My fear was that if I walked any further than about 200 feet, the muscles would go into spasm again. In an effort to avoid such a severe limitation to my mobility I searched the Internet for information. In that search I had the good fortune to discover Dr Essig-Beatty's book - Manipulation at Home. The sacroiliac mobilization exercise that he describes in his book cleared up the original symptom and I have not had any muscle or joint related trouble since then. I returned to the state where I could walk for hours at a time without any discomfort. I also found some of the other stretches in his book helpful in maintaining my flexibility. The spirit of this book is a major departure from the approach to medical care that I have experienced up until now. It encourages people to actively participate in treating their condition based on structural evaluation and supervision of a professional. Prior to this experience I had no knowledge of any type of anatomy or bodywork. Getting to the point where I understood what was causing my low back pain and had learned enough to get rid of it took a great deal of time and energy devoted to research. I'm sure that I am not the only consumer of medical services who would really appreciate receiving the kind of self help information that is in this book but tailored to my needs from medical professionals.

I was diagnosed with plantar fasciitis, causing heal pain. My foot doctor prescribed orthodics, but little else. Then, I found this wonderful book where I could heal the problem, and work on preventing, at home! much cheaper and less painful than just repeated cortisone shots. I later also used it to solve my "golfer's elbow" pain from forehand tennis, or just pushing heavy drawers closed. It is like having a physical therapist on your shelf! Written so well, clear, easy to follow, with great explanatory illustrations. Get it!
Thank you Dr. Essig-Beatty.

Prof. Howard Seeman, Professor Emeritus, Education

I had this book when I was a little girl. It is a wonderful collection of stories! I could not recommend it more highly. My daughter is also now named Mattie Mae (after her great grandmother.)

In Edna Beiler's Mattie Mae, young readers learn what life is like for an Amish girl surrounded by her many cousins and other relatives. Mattie Mae enjoys simple living, with happy and contented people working, playing, and enjoying simple pleasures together. This wonderfully charming, highly recommended collection of engaging little stories includes Here Comes Mattie Mae!; Hello, Uncle Tobe; A Box for Benjy; Something to Tell Your Children; Topsy-Turvy Day; Good-Bye, Uncle Tobe; A Present for Cousin Lizbet; Where's Alice?; Cousin Day; The Happiest Girl in the World; Chrystobel; Company for Mattie Mae; Namesakes; and The Christmas Closet.

This is a great addition to your library if you have any interest in either meditation and/or a martial art. What are the "tangible" benefits of these practices, why are they worthwhile, and what relevancy are they to modern cultures?

This is a great book that makes clear connections between the practice of martial arts, the emphasis on focus and attention in various religions, and the need for this kind of focus in the modern world. As the author put it in an interview I found online (http://www.killingthebuddha.com/oral/sp_exercises.htm):

"Anyone who does the martial arts has asked himself or herself about the investment of time. I live in a decent neighborhood. I have been mugged exactly once in my life, and I ran -- I didn't engage in any kind of martial encounter. I leave my family and spend a lot of time on practices that are not natural to me.

"As this book evolved, it became more and more a reflection on our contemporary situation living in a high-information society. I read about what these people wrote about the struggle to maintain attention in cultures so different from our own, and I ask myself, "Could they ever have conceived the world that we live in, with cable TV with 190 channels and the World Wide Web?" There is this incredible battle, backed by economic power and remarkable technologies, to capture our attention and then shape our habits and our behavior. It seems to me that there is a real struggle here. One has a limited amount of attention to invest, and the competition for it is extraordinary -- in ways that these spiritual writers could never have imagined.

"So I see these disciplines -- it doesn't have to be martial arts, but can be some other kind of meditative discipline -- as being exercises to equip a person in the 21st century to deal with this crisis. And I really believe that it is a crisis. You can see what is being invested in industries of diversion."

Fantastic stuff!

Was not exactly what I thought, but the author is a fantastic storyteller. Made the characters real instead of two-dimensional. Certainly going to look for more of her work.

Less than 20 pages in and I was totally hooked! It was easy reading and I kept thinking about the Delinda and Jeryl way after I put the book down. The descriptions were just enough. I could easily imgine the places and people but wasn't bored by any overly detailed descriptions like some other books. I'd love to read more about some of these characters (I won't say who because that would give away the ending!) and how they get on with their lives and find their true loves. Can't wait to read more by Virgina Reede!

The story of the Monongah Mine Disaster written by Davitt McAteer honors the memory of the men and women whom helped to build this country with the sweat, blood and tears of their years of toil. McAteer takes the reader through the background of not only the mine disaster itself but also through the historically important moments that led up to and through the time period of 1907. These moments cascade upon the reader as they experience the events through the actual recollections of the miners themselves.
McAteer has done a wonderful job of combining the exacting details of the day while pulling the reader into the very lives of the miners and the industrialist that had such a cause and effect relationship. This volatile relationship of the American Miner and their counterpart; the Industrialist, has lasted throughout today.

As the tragedy of that fateful December day unfolds the reader can not help but see and fully understand how the countries desire for growth, driven by the reckless push for forward progress, was destined to collide in a very tragic tragic accident.

Brien Jones-Lantzy

On 6 December 1907, an explosion in the Fairmont Coal Company's Mines 6 & 8 in Monongah, Marion County, West Virginia, killed 500+ miners. This is a detailed study of that disaster. Before I actually put these words to paper, I was somewhat negative about Monongah, but for the wrong reasons. That would have been pretty stupid on my part, and would have placed form over substance. (Also, it would have run afoul of TR's comments about it not being the critic who counts, but that the credit belongs to the one "who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly . . .".) The author, Davitt McAteer, is a native of Fairmont (right up the road from Monongah) who now practices law in Shepherdstown. (His sister is a friend and very gracious lady.) He served honorably as the head of MSHA during the Clinton Administration. Having come out of the United Mine Workers of America, he was less than the darling of the coal operators while in government. (The owner of the Crandall Canyon Mine in Utah, which collapsed killing 6 miners and and 3 rescuers in 2007, spoke of McAteer with fluent contempt in a press conference broadcast on CNN.)
To grade this book, we have to grade several subjects:
Research/Scholarship - A
Organization - B+
Editing - D
Overall Value - A+
McAteer researched Monongah for 30 years. (If he plans to match the output of a Michener, he needs to move a little quicker.) The length and depth of the research shows. Nearly all of the sources are primary ones, and the book is extensively end-noted. McAteer's writing isn't Michener, but particularly when he is talking about people, and how people lived, he does so with passion and such unusual detail that one can clearly see the images. The descriptions of the miners' poverty in the squalor of company houses are so real that they are painful. The organization is a touch chaotic, but I might be unfair about that one. McAteer is covering a single large event which had several coherent lines of development going at once, so a strict chronology is impossible. At times, the book is redundant, but that's really more of an editing problem.
Ah, editing. Monongah is the unfortunate victim of inadequate, even inept editing, so much so that it takes willing suspension of disbelief to get past that to the value of the work. Whoever edited this used spell-check but didn't read the manuscript itself very closely. There are several instances where homonyms or similar words are confused ("to" rather than "too", "road" rather than "roar", "Triangle Shirt Waste Factory" rather than "Triangle Shirt Waist . . ."), poor grammar (" . . . they were paid a hourly wages") and some silly factual mistakes. (West Virginia was formed in 1863, not 1865; the hotel in Wheeling is McClure House, not McLure House; President Taft's Christian names were "William Howard," not "Howard A.") For 30 bucks, more attention should have been paid to the details. There are also errors that I'm probably too petty in noticing that wouldn't distract any reader save one who has walked the ground where the disaster happened. (I've been there many times, and every time I go to my father-in-law's house, I park on the streetcar right-of-way that figures prominently in McAteer's account.) McAteer isn't heavy on historical interpretation (an attitude that I heartily approve of), and most of what he does sounds reasonable to me. (I think he misses the point of Theodore Roosevelt's intervention in the 1902 Anthracite Strike, but that's subject to honest disagreement.) SO, overall, if you set aside my own literary/grammatical fastidiousness, Monongah is an engaging and timely look at an important event and a turbulent time in our nation's industrial and social history.
There is a children's book (The Monongah Mining Disaster, by Jason Skog) due to be published in January 2008. It will be interesting to see what view that author presents to youngsters.

As a civil war buff who enjoys touring, I unexpectedly lucked onto this rare,out of print,1991 edition in a major bookstore recently.It was the only copy on the shelf. I devoured it in conjunction a Blue & Gray magazine trilogy about John Singleton Mosby's exploits during the war in Virginia. This Evans/Moyer book is loaded with neat little tid-bits of information about the man, himself, his many facinating associates and opponents, their controversial engagements and the multitude of specific locations where his "Rangers" operated from 1863 to 1865.Fortunately, many of these sites are still available in beautiful, historic, north-central Virginia. I give it 5 stars even though it's map/diagrams are confusing and can only be understood with the assistance of updated, fully detailed maps. Despite these defects the book deserves such a rating.

Thoroughly researched and entertaining, this rare and compelling book is a must have for Civil War enthusiasts. Bravo!!

Last night, I finished reading Andy Colvin's book, The Mothman's Photographer II. This is one of those books that is essential reading for those of you fascinated with Mothman.

Somewhat appropriately, and like the Mothman mystery itself, the book is full of all sorts of twists and turns, dark and disturbing scenarios, contains as many questions as it does answers, and definitely defies convention.

The book basically tells the very personal story of Colvin's interest in, and obsession with, the Mothman; something that began in his childhood in the sixties when he and his friends constructed a "shrine" to the Mothman - and after which strange and bizarre things began happening to Colvin, to his family, and to those around him.

In many ways, Colvin's book is more mind-bending than John Keel's The Mothman Prophecies. But this is a good thing: rather than simply go over old ground, and recount the original story, Colvin describes for us how the Mothman personally affected, manipulated, and possibly guided, his own life experiences, right through to the present day.

And it's written in an appropriately unconventional style too: via interviews, transcripts, personal comments and thoughts, and more.

For those who view Mothman as purely a crypto-zoological puzzle, you'll find yourselves at odds with Colvin, who places the creature in a very different category.

Essentially, Colvin views the Mothman as being akin to the Garuda - the majestic bird-like entity of Buddhist and Hindu mythology. Colvin's view is that the presence of the Mothman at the Point Pleasant, West Virginia bridge-collapse of 1967 (as described in Keel's book) was not in any way sinister.

Rather, Colvin sees the Mothman/Garuda as being basically a benign entity, and one that surfaces from its strange realm of existence at times of peril and strife, and when things are distinctly ill with the world. Part-helper, part-guide, it's inextricably linked with us - but generally for the better, Colvin believes.

But it's also a creature whose presence should not be taken lightly - nor should the fact that the creature's presence at Point Pleasant may have been tied in with a whole host of other activity, including classified government projects in the fields of mind-manipulations and psychotronics, synchronicities, the Men in Black, dark and tragic prophecies, the world of big-business, the military-industrial complex, and much more.

The Mothman's Photographer II is a fantastically strange trip into a world without rules, where just about anything goes, and where convention is thrown out of the window. But it works - and it works very well.

If you read the book, you are likely going to come away with a new view (or, at the very least, a modified view) of Mothman, thanks to a man who had the vision and guts to follow his instinct and present his data, ideas, theories and thoughts to those willing to listen.

And, given the fact that it seems the nature of Colvin's life was almost pre-destined from the day he first immersed himself in the world of the Mothman, perhaps he was meant to write the book. And perhaps we're all meant to read it. If so, Colvin has done us a great service in providing a book that is unique, unusual, riveting reading, and beyond thought-provoking.

Read and prepare to have your mind blown, bent, reorganized and, if you get the message, elevated, too.

Andrew Colvin has put together an amazing, detailed, and compendious book on sightings of the Mothman, or Garuda, whose visage Colvin has apparently captured on film--but which also touches on the Rockefellers, the Manson Family, The Philadelphia Experiment, Union Carbide, and strange 1967 premonitions of the destruction of the World Trade Center.

With transcripts of his interviews by the excellent Keith Hansen ("Vyzygoth") framing the work, Colvin weaves a fascinating tapestry of synchronicity, anomaly, and unexplained occurrence. There are transcripts also of talks by Grey Barker and John Keel, and of Colvin's own television program, The Mothman's Photograper, with annotations and asides by Colvin throughout. There is much, much more, though.

The Garuda has been legendary throughout human history as a harbinger and a protector--an inspirer of prophetic visions. That this legend would manifest itself to Americans in the 21st century is, in Colvin's view, some cause for alarm--and comfort. Alarm, because its appearance usually foretokens disaster; comfort, because those visited are forewarned and forearmed. Colvin's friends and family in and around Mound, West Virginia speak eloquently of their visitations.

My recommendation is that you unplug the phone, toss aside the iPod, shoot the television and spend a weekend delving into this most fascinating book.

I wish that other authors of hiking guidebooks would read this one and copy its author's style. Each hike is described in detail with every bit of information you'd ever need, including how to get to the trailhead, where to park, etc. The trail maps are clearly marked and well detailed, taking the guesswork out of navigation. The trail descriptions are detailed and accurate, with useful and interesting information throughout. I can't wait to get back and tackle more of the trails he describes.

Things get awful hot during an Arkansas summer. I decided to head for the Southern Appalachins, where the summers are cool. Mount Rogers National Recreation Area has the scenery without all the crowds of the Smokies. Molloy's book details literally everything you can do there, from biking rail trails, to camping, to overnighting at B & B's, to hiking at Virginia's highest point.

After arriving there, I started in the West End at Beartree Campground. Reading Molloy's book at camp, kept leading me to other destinations at Mount Rogers. Before I knew it, two weeks were up and I had barely scratched the surface of this outdoor getaway. Molloy must've had a blast writing this book. I sure had fun using it. This book is a must buy guide to what is going on at Mt. Rogers. Take a read and see for yourself.

While best known for her novels, Virginia Woolf also wrote essays and short stories. This is a short collection of seven stories from the period 1922 to 1927, around the publication of Mrs. Dalloway. Some of the stories had previously been published elsewhere, but this is the first publication for two of them.

Like the novel, these short stories surround the party; but unlike the novel, most of these stories focus on the guests at the party. The first of these relates an expedition of Clarissa Dalloway's to buy gloves, and is full of all the interior monologue one might expect. The rest are rather character sketches and encounters among Mrs. Dalloway's guests, and absolutely leave one satisfied with a picture of each character and encounter. If you enjoyed Mrs. Dalloway, and you can read short stories, you absolutely will enjoy this book.

You don't need to have read the classic novel Mrs. Dalloway to appreciate this collection of short stories (which take place at the party which is the centerpiece of that book) in order to appreciate Woolf's genius, although it certainly won't hurt. Woolf's internal monologues are, if anything, more delightful in these smaller doses. The point of view is always clear, and those who have found Woolf's prose to be sometimes a tad tiring will be pleased to find this much easier reading. As in the novel, her characters are emotionally flawed, thoroughly believable, and all-too-familiar. A perfect choice for readers not ready to commit to a complete novel by Woolf, but who want to know what all the excitement is about.

It has been very useful to help my 1st grader be attentive during the mass. She has read it cover to cover. She understands why we sing the opening song, say "Alleluia" and other parts of the mass.

"My First Missal" is one of those little books that is so inexpensive, you might not immediately see its usefulness... "My First Missal" tracks the entire Mass (with pastel-colored drawings along the way), explaining why we do the things we do in simple-to-read detail, following the pattern of the Mass in Ordinary time. It is easier for kids to follow along with than it is for them to use the missalette in the pew. There's also a nice part at the end which explains the Sacrament of Reconciliation and teaches children how to examine the conscience. We keep copies of this little book on our church's book table and my children each have their own copy.