H Books

This is one of my favorite books folks. Yes, she dishes up a bit of dirt and gossip about the stars she worked with but, she does it with such class and a healthy dose of sensitive editing. The respect she felt for her co-stars is evident and her life story a pleasure to read. Ms. Russell takes you right along with her through the joy, sorrow, and crazy fun that made up her life. I found this book to be both uplifting and motivating. What a smart,witty,enthusiastic lady! If you don't love her yet, you will after you read this.

I read this biography years ago, but after reading a recent article about Rosalind Russell, decided I just had to have it. She was the real deal - actress, star, no-nonsense dame. I love her.

This book is almost just as funny as one of Rosalind Russell's movies. I learned much I hadn't known before about her early life, as well as her co-stars. The book gives hilarious insights into such projects as His Girl Friday (1940), and The Women (1939), her first comedy.

Roz, the fast-talking dame, will never disappoint in this three-laughs-a-page book. It's also got some great photographs, of her childhood, early acting career, and behind-the-scenes shots of her films. If you are a fan of Rosalind Russell, missing out on this book is your loss!

Reviewers don't mention the ghostwriter of this autobiography which is told in the first person, the hilarious and wonderful Chris Chase who also wrote Betty Ford's biography.

Anyone familiar with Chase's articles in the NY Times and her book would recognize her voice here.

The book is wonderful but while it's honest about Russell's deep religious feelings and patriotism, it skates over her right-wing sympathies (to which she was entitled) and her friendships with Nazi sympathizers.

Russell was indeed a multi-talented and fascinating woman who had an amazing life. I liked and admired her--- I enjoyed this book immensely, but I wish she had been challenged more.

This is funny, poignant, interesting, and delightfully written. Russell begins with her childhood adventures riding horses with her brothers and sisters and also talks about her loveable, eccentric father and too-funny eldest sister, who was nicknamed "the Duchess" before moving on to her stage and then movie career. You feel as if you have come to tea with Miss Russell and she is telling you stories.

The concepts in this book work. The long-term care center where my mother spent her final nine months actually introduced me to the concepts of the Eden alternative, and indicated that many residents were feeling more content and "stable" with the presence of animals and plants in the individuals' rooms and throughout the facility. An indoor fountain was donated to the lobby. My mom was delighted when a parakeet magically appeared one day to become her roommate for many months. There were small birds in various rooms and lobbies, often donated by families or staff. Bunnies and dogs made weekly visits to residents, and each floor had a free-roaming cat. I especially loved one who occasionally cruised into Mom's room to check up on its feathered friend in the cage.

Long-term care MUST change to meet the needs of aging boomers, though they may be aging well for their years; bodies eventually fail as life closes. Mr. Thomas has the ideas and vision to change the course of eldercare so that the wisdom and dignity of the elderly can be recognized in society, enabling them to remain assets rather than burdens.

E.A. Davis, author, Waiting for Wings: Accomanying a Parent to the Edge of Life

As a Regional Ombudsman, responsible for a large county in N. CA, I used this book to inspire people to form a "Family Council" in a sample nursing home and to lobby for the changes that Thomas recommends. The home adopted several of the changes and they transformed the home, once known as the worst in the county into the best. Several people emerged from years of depression, others simply took a whole new interest in life, others simply had whole-hearted laughter reenter their lives for the fist time in years. The Eden alternative is indeed the "recipe" for making one's years in long term care "worth living."

Anyone planning to place their family member in a nursing home should read this innovative book first. They author's insightful, yet relatively simple ideas show how a well designed nursing home can be a welcoming, life affirming place for your loved one to live. I am a legal aid hotline attorney and own an medical supply business and often discuss nursing home related issues with my clients and customers. I found this book eyeopening and educational. If your relative is already in a nursing home, give the director a copy of this book.

The activities director at my mother's nursing home(Tn.) brought this author and his book's to my attention. The nursing home administrator is currently having the entire staff read this line of book's(The Eden Project). I ordered "Life Worth Living" and "Learning From Hannah", because I want to be a part of what will make mom's life and other's a better place to be. I started reading "Life Worth Living" and was honestly amazed about how educational this paperback really was. Not only is this book easy to understand, it's extremely interesting! I can only pray that some day all nursing home facilities realize how beneficial the "Eden Project" really is.

This book will show how to turn a cold clinical facility into a warm, caring home. A place families want to visit, not make exuses to avoid. This truly can be revolutional. Anyone placing a person into a nursing facility should make sure they have Edenized.

I learned about the existence of this manuscript 16 years ago, yet could never find a full version, until the book came. I have read most of it and it is beatiful. Many of the tradeoffs the early UNIX versions had are there. Context switching is done via coroutine jumps, the callout table is used only for the teletype, the very origins of the scheduler and swapper are neatly explained among many other things. PDP11 architecture is simple enough to make this book still a jewel for those interested in learning OS concepts and evolution and specifically UNIX.

I have been working with Unix for more than 5 years, and read more than 20 books about unix itself. But I never seend book like this much well explain about internal architecture. Unix 6 on PDP-11 is old, but main idea still remain all major distribution.

It great helpful for my understanding about Unix.

The world is full of books on operating systems: their theory, their internals, their applications, etc. The Lions book connects OS theory to practice better than anything I have ever seen. Reading it beforehand certainly made graduate-school Operating Systems a lot easier.

This is prably the best source/commentary book. Though some of the stuff is outdated, the core still is quite valid and gives useful insight into the implementation of the kernel.

I have gone through about 10-15% of the book, like filesystems and os initialization, and fouud it extremely helpful.

santy

Any comments made on a superlative commentary on superb code would be largely superfluous. This gem should be part of any Operating Systems course. The greatest of the pleasures offered by the book is the opportunity to read the source code, version 6 of the UNIX Operating System. It is a unique opportunity to see the real masters at work!

Highly recommended, with Maurice J Bach's "The Design of the Unix Operating System" as a supplement.

No matter what your personal goals are for building relationships, this book will give you tips for making the most of them.

I bought this book for my husband before we have our first baby. I was more excited than he was to have the lyrics to old songs and cool craft and cooking ideas. He has yet to look through it. Maybe he will use it more once the baby is actually here. Keep you posted.

I gave my Son this book as a "sort of" Shower gift. We were going to my Daughter in law's shower and I wanted to give my Son a gift as well.
What better gift that a wonderful Little Big Book for Dads ?
He really liked it and that made me happy.

This book is a good one if you are going to have only a few to read to your little one. It has a wide variety of stories and rhymes for Dads to read to their little people. Moms will enjoy reading from it, too.

Yes...that is what really matters and when I brought it home she fell in love with the pictures and stuff. It is a 'best of' book for expecting fathers. The jokes are actually funny, the stories are great and very well written. I recommend it highly for first-time expecting Daddies like myself and all other Daddies too.

This book is amazing. It has helped me realize what this world would be like without the catholic church, the inherent dangers of secularism, and the path to rectify the evil of modernism. By doing this, it has helped bring me back to the catholic church. This author is on par with Aldous Huxley and George Orwell in both his ability to visualize alternate worlds with precise understanding and his ability to write in a eloquent yet succinct manner. It is a short book and I highly recommend it.

R.H. Benson wrote two mystical visions of the future. _The Dawn of All_ is an extremely romantic and improbable 1911 parable of a 1971 world mostly Catholic and at peace, ready for the Second Coming. _The Lord of the World_ came first, in 1907, and was a darker vision. A world of flying craft, major scientific advances, and comfort has become a place of materialist despair. Euthanasia is routine, for the desperately ill and the terminally bored. Oliver and Mabel Brand, a rising young couple, are the golden ones -- Oliver becomes a major political figure, but Mabel chooses the cool despairing end of legal euthanasia. Father Percy Franklin is one of the last Catholic priests in a world hostile to freedom, church, university, and history. Eventually elected the last Pope, he is restricted to the dusty forgotten village of Nazareth. Julian Felsenburgh is a charismatic American adventurer who means to and does become Lord of the World, anti-Christ. Details are less important than the very modern mood. Believing in progress as the only good, people are swept into any movement that promises it. The past is ruthlessly exterminated. The quest for one world government that begins with Esperanto ends with one world dictatorship.

Robert Hugh Benson grew up at the end of the nineteenth century, when it looked like Socialism would sweep over the world and make religious worship outmoded. His father was Archbishop of Canterbury; and he joined the Church of England but later converted to Catholicism. In his introduction to this book he wrote that he took the idea of Man (not the Son of Man) becoming the ideal and 'took it where it would go'.

Knowing that this book was written in 1904, before the Great War and the dissolution of the European Empires, and the nascent beginning of flight, it is interesting to read his views of what the world would look like in 100 years (or about now). He saw the end of poverty and hunger, and the raising of HUMANITY to the paramount position. His views on woman are arcane, as one of his characters dismissed his wife as 'just a woman', and that they make no strides of independence. He talks about inter-city flight at the amazing speed of 150mph, one year after Kitty Hawk.

The stories bottom line is that once Man begins to worship himself (in the guise of Julian Felsenburg), he not only has no need for idealized religion, but that the persecution of anyone who disagrees will become an act of Sedition and punishable by death. Religion is represented in this story by Roman Catholicism (all others having given in and disbanded, except for a few 'elderly jews wandering in Palestine) which fights a peaceable rear guard action against the forces of HUMANITY.

The language is a little difficult and flowery, while the ideas are interesting but sometimes the catholicism is hard to comprehend, but all in all it's worth reading.

Robert Hugh Benson (born November 18, 1871; died October 19, 1914) was the youngest son of Edward White Benson, Archbishop of Canterbury, and younger brother of Edward Frederic Benson. Benson studied Classics and Theology at Trinity College, Cambridge, from 1890 to 1893. In 1895, he was ordained a priest in the Church of England by his father.

His father died suddenly in 1896, and Benson was sent on a trip to the Middle East to recover his own health. While there, he began to question the status of the Church of England and to consider the claims of the Roman Catholic Church. His own piety began to tend toward the High Church variety, and he started exploring religious life in various Anglican communities, eventually obtaining permission to join the Community of the Resurrection.

Benson made his profession as a member of the community in 1901, at which time he had no thoughts of leaving the Church of England. But as he continued his studies and began writing, he became more and more uneasy with his own doctrinal position, and on September 11, 1903, he was received into the Roman Catholic Church.

He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1904 and sent to Cambridge. He continued his writing career along with the usual elements of priestly ministry. He was named a monsignor in 1911.

Lord of the World is one of his more exemplary works and well worth reading.

"A Century before Left Behind there was Lord of the World," reads the cover blurb in the striking Wildside Press edition. But while both books deal with end times, that's where the similarities end. In Benson's vision, Catholics are the last remaining Christians. The Left Behind books, named for a line in Larry Norman's song, "I Wish We'd All Been Ready," on the other hand, follow the idea of the rapture popularized in Hal Lindsey's bestselling book, The Late Great Planet Earth.

I ordered this book from Amazon after reading Gwen Watkins' essay in Charles Williams: A Celebration (also available from Amazon) comparing Benson and Williams as writers. Williams being my favorite author, I was very excited to come upon a similarly gifted novelist. Benson wrote Lord of the World in 1907; it takes place in a future about a century later (around now). That's also around the time that Chesterton wrote his novels. Both he and Benson write so colorfully that it's sometimes hard to know what's going on. Whether people were more imaginative then or that was the style at the turn of the century I don't know. But having read GKC helps one read Benson, and vice versa.

Williams is often held to be obscure for his descriptions of supernatural and occultic ritual. Benson's obscurity lies in his pre-Vatican II Catholic vocabulary and bits of the Latin Mass, which will not be familiar to many readers. That aside, this is an absolutely gripping story. Having once started, I couldn't put the book down. Uncannily, in this 1907 novel, Benson prophesied a dark future that became reality, first in Germany and then in the USSR. Writing in the then new genre of science fiction, he envisioned a technologically advanced world nevertheless rushing headlong to destruction. It's amazing how contemporary he sounds as he looks forward in time to our present and his future.

As the sole network administrator in a small Internet startup, I am responsible for every facet of our IT department. In the past year, our network has encountered intrusions, mainly by vindictive ex-employees, and a myriad of viruses/trojans of which a few of our systems became zombie machines. Since our network has fallen prey to various malware, on several occasions I've been notified by law enforcement that our machines were a part of a bot net. Other times we were warned by PayPal, eBay, and other financial institutions such as Bank of America that we were hosting phishing web sites. Starting a company on limited funds and manpower as well as enduring the growing pains of maintaining a network are difficult enough by itself. A colleague from my prior company referred me this new book which he thought would be suitable to bring me up to speed on investigating malware. Together with my knowledge base and reading through several key chapters, performing a few practical hands on case scenarios, and building a live response tool kit, I feel confidant that I would be able to proficiently investigate and analyze most malware which I may encounter. At minimum, I would be able to assist or present to law enforcement my findings for further investigation.

Relatively new to malware analysis and computer forensics, I was a bit concerned if this book would be helpful to me. I wanted a book that would serve as an introduction as well a reference guide, and this book hit the mark! Particularly useful is the book's coverage of both Windows and Linux, which makes it a nice universal reference. [Side note: As I'm primarily a Mac user, it would have been nice to see some Mac coverage as well, but maybe in the next edition?]
The book structure and flow is intuitive and I enjoyed following the case scenarios as the basis of demonstrating the tools and techniques Although the book covers each facet of the "malware forensics" process (live response, file profiling, etc) in great detail, and with the chapters building on each other, I found it pretty easy to jump ahead to other chapters too. The book web site, (www.malwareforensics.com) was not adverstised, but easy enough to find, considering the URL is simply the book title. The site serves a good reference to bookmark because it announces the release of new or updated tools and has a lot of links to other malware/forensic resources. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised with Malware Forensics and I'm looking forward to the 2nd edition!"

Malware Forensics by Aquilina, Casey and Malin, is one of those fortunate instances of a technical work being on the right topic at the right time. As increasing legions of personal computers are becoming possessed by an overwhelming variety of unsolicited "warez" which steal information, consume bandwidth, and poison OSs, it is refreshing to find a work such as this, which comprehensively treats the collection, identification and forensic analysis of a broad range of malicious code from the perspectives of both the security specialist and the law-enforcement professional. Particularly useful features of the book are the "Case Scenarios" which allow the reader to identify familiar patterns in the delivery system and behavior of malware examples, the "Analysis Tips" which are enormously helpful in avoiding wasted effort, and the guidance offered in Chapter 1 for the development of a customized toolkit. I was intrigued by the thorough treatment of Memory Forensics (Chapter 3) which, alone, offers ample justification for purchasing this work. I was also impressed by Chapters 2,5,8 and 10 which illustrate how useful Linux can be in isolating and analyzing malware. This book merits being read by every active IT security professional and of being kept as an important reference and instructional work. Kudos to Curtis Rose for bringing it together. Hopefully we'll hear more from these authors separately and/or together.

James C. Smith, Ph.D.

I couldn't agree more with the previous reviews...

With accuracy, detail, and clarity the authors were able to provide a resource that not only answers the needs of highly seasoned system administrators, but also caters to those who may work on the periphery of systems affected by malware. Any investigation into malcode forensics will be enhanced by referring to this book. The exploration of different forsensic tools available out there really expanded my toolbox. I found chapter six - "Legal Considerations" to be an excellent addition to this book. If you want to dive "full bore" into malware extraction, analysis, and identification, keep this book nearby and you'll find it streamlines the process for you. Thanks for the great book!

This book is a must have for attorneys and investigators dealing with corporations victimized by internet criminals looking to steal the keys to the digital vault. It is the most complete treatment of the legal and investigative issues facing forensic investigators and corporate victims in determining the origins of the attack as well as its intent. Also, unlike most works in this area it provides analysis of the regulatory schemes both domestic and international which impact the nature and extent of these investigations. A must have resource.

I already have this great cookbook, which is impossible to find in book stores. It is a favorite because so many recipes can be made ahead. I was very pleased to see that I could get a used copy that was reasonable and in good condition on Amazon.com for a friend. I added sticky notes to all the recipes that I had tried before giving it to her. The wait time was minimal, also, and my friend was delighted.

I have had this book for over 20 years....it is food-stained and dog-earred but remains my favorite in my 200+ cookbook library! Marlene's carrot cake recipe is the best of its type;very moist and flavorful. The bacon-stuffed cherry tomatoes are colorful,and always a hit as is the steak-in-a-bag recipe! My kids love the dilled shrimp and I make her chili recipe at least once a year. My daughter carved the whale-filled fruit bowl for one of my summer card parties, and it was quite a conversation piece!

A friend/caterer told me about Marlene Sorosky's cookbooks as 'never fail' recipes that are very good. I use her recipes all the time.

There are few cookbook authors whose recipes I use without testing them ahead of time, usually several times. Marlene Sorosky is actually the ONLY one. This book is no exception. Everything I have tried is marvelous, the first time and every time thereafter. Try it, you'll like it!

Everything in this book is wonderful and, if you follow her directions, turns out. We give this book to all our friends and family because it's so wonderful! Steak in a bag is to die for and I'm not a steak fan. Moby mellon is great, Chocolate Mouse cake is wonderful. Liver Pate is always a hit. Can't go wrong with this one.

I have already another excellent book (Ultimate fitness) and some DVD's of Master Sang H. Kim. He is a great teacher and likes to share his martial arts wisdom.
This book covers almost every single aspect about running a martial arts business, from teaching to marketing.
A serious book to serious martial arts teachers.
I strongly advice you to get one.

I'd recommend this without reservation to any martial arts instructor, part-time or full time. Or any instructor. It provides excellent simple advice for dealing with simple difficult issues such as ADD kids or other attention problems in class. It provides straightforward and concise guides for organizing a class or a business. I've had it only a few weeks, and expect to be mining its depths for years. I doubt if I'll ever sit down to read it straight through, but I've found that every time I've gone to it for any specific issue, or just to open and browse for ten or fifteen minutes, I've learned something.

This book has a wealth of information about running a dojang (dojo). From dealing with the difficult student to organizing a class with specific drills, this book covers everything a good instructor needs to at least think through. I particularly liked the aspects of running a business; when to advertise, how to run a radio spot, what to do when enrollment drops, when to expand and when not to. If your business is teaching martial arts, you must have this book.

Martial arts desk reference is a wonderful guide that no instructor should be without. Good ideas,for high ranking , as well as student instructors. great book

I found this book to be a great reference in running my school. I have made it required reading for all my instructors and staff members. I highly recommend this title to all those running a martial arts school.

I thought this really captured the artist in me. I don't know if I would say Bess is my favorite fairy thou but I see a lot of myself in her she's messy, and likes to paint when wants to. I read this fairly quickly it is somewhere in the mid range for a chapter book not too easy and not to hard but definitely an enjoyable story

My nine year old daughter loves fairy books about Tinkerbell and her friends. She absolutely devours them as soon as I get them. What a boost for her imagination!

We own all of this series! Started reading them when my daughter was 4 (she just turned 5 now), and they are age appropriate. Not too scary and always a happy ending. One book only takes us about 4-5 nights worth of reading together. The longer ones are good too "Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg" and "Fairy Haven and the Quest for the Wand", but they are a little bit scarrier than the short books (more appropriate for ages 5-7 I would think).

The story a masterpiece for Bees the main conflict was, about a fairy name Bees who loves to paint in her studio. One day Bees figured that she would make a portrait for tinker bell since she fixed her best Palette knife she ever had. That day tinker bell showed everyone her new portrait. Then all of the other fairies wanted one just like tinker bell's, they asked tinker bell what was the occasion of Bees making her a panting tinker bell said oh not a thing it was a surprise to me because I just fixed her best palette knife she ever had and she said she wanted to give me something in return. Of me doing that for her so she made me a portrait of myself to hang up in my room since I needed some spices in my room.'' I had asked her for one before and she never had the time to make me one. The next day Bees got a knock on her door it was Dulice the fairy most known for his poppy puff rolls. Dulice asked Bees did she want any of his famous poppy puff rolls. Bees said "of course thank you a lot" then Bees said "what can". Before she got to finish her sentence Dulice said oh yeah can paint a picture of me and my rolls. Bees was pleased to make Dulice a picture it would be the first time that Bess painted a picture with a fairy holding something in their hands. Then she got another knock on her door with roses, then another, another, and another everybody wanted her to paint a picture of them. It was over 100 fairies who Bees had to paint a portrait of. She was so tried every time she went some were and some one help her out Bees always say what can I so they always say a picture would be good before she got to finish talking. After Bees finished 15 portraits some of the fairies were complaining about how their wing are not the right size, their face does not look right, and they need a do over. Bees got angry and had a really good idea in her head but could not get it out because of the thing's she have been doing for the past few days. That afternoon, Bees left a note on her studio door that said "sorry I can not paint all of the fairies pictures at one time have to get back with you another day because today I need time by myself". Bees had went far away into the forest were no one could find her while she was painting a portrait of the sky and the trees then a storm had came it was, lighting and, thundering but bees still was painting she was happy that she got her own time to her self. While bees was painting a storm fairy was passing by she saw Bees painting and went back to tell the other fairies were she had seen Bees all of them were mad at Bees because she had gone off to do her own thing instead of paint their pictures. That night Bees decides to stay to tinker bell house so no one would come knocking on her door while she was resting just to ask for a painting. Then another fairy seen Bees with a big portrait in her hand then all of the fairies thought it was of them. Until Bees came to show them that it was a portrait of nature all of the fairies got mad at her and Said well where is our portrait's Bess told them that she did not want to make a portraits of fairies anymore, because she got tried of doing the same thing over, and over and wanted to get the new idea out of her head but couldn't because of all the drama. Then all of the fairies walked off and then the meanest fairy of them all Vida told Bees that she loved her painting and did not care what the other fairies said about it. Since Vida told Bees that her painting was beautiful Bess figured that she will let Vida have her portrait. Bees was happy that some on had liked her painting and felt good to give it away to someone who cared about it. But she did not want the other fairies to pick on her and say she was the meanest fairy because she did not paint their painting .Bess did not know what to do until her friend Quill told her that she did the right thing because usually all of the fairies did not give out thing's like that. In maybe the only reason they did that was because they wanted you to paint a painting of them bees was not mad at what Quill said. Finally the problem was resolved when Bees and Quill walked into the Tearoom and everyone was looking at Rosetta dress saying how pretty her dress was and where did she get it from.Rosetta loved that she had all eyes on her. She stood there with her pink flower In her head, blue top, pink dress, and her pink shoes on. Everyone wanted a dress just like that they all asked who made the dress Rosetta said, "why I did of course" all of the fairies said would you make me one please. Rosetta told all of them yes. Rosetta was happier then ever to see that everyone wanted her to make a dress for them. Then lots of people told Bess that they did not want a painting of themselves anymore. Bees did not reply to them and was just happy the pressure was off of her.

Good reading books for 9 year olds +. My 10 year old granddaughter loves this series of books. I have purchased her 5 different stories and she has re-read them several times. Loves them.

I loved this book. I would love to read more just like it. Everyone who reads it will enjoy Mattie & fall in love with her & her best friend PeeDee. They friendship stays true even through murder. Enjoy!

The story opens up in April 1945. June is nine-years-old. Her parents had recently dropped her off, at the home of Aunt Mattie and Uncle Cade, with only a pillowcase full of clothes. They reside in Jackson County of the North Carolina mountains. Uncle Cade is also the local sheriff.

The Rednell family reside at the Watsons' place. The daddy is often drunk and always cruel. Sheriff Cade has been called out to settle disputes at the Rednell's and calm the daddy down many times. This time, however, Uncle Cade is shot and killed. The daddy is arrested, but claims he did not do it. No one else is talking. Aunt Mattie and June are now all alone. It is from this time onward that everyone in the community begins calling June "Mattie's Girl".

Here the story suddenly shifts and time goes backwards. Most of the novel is set before the year of 1945. Only the beginning and a few chapters toward the end are set during June's life changing month of April 1945 and beyond. The reader learns about June's parents and what led them to abandon June with her aunt and uncle. Through June's eyes, readers learn how hard life really was in the mountains during this era of time. Readers learn about Halloween carnivals, home remedies, making toothbrushes from a sassafras bush, listening to radio shows, mad dogs, and even about Hog Killing Day. June's favorite thing to do is to read. Through her books and a few visitors, June learns that good grammar and a strong vocabulary can equal power. June's best friend is PeeDee Rednell. Even though her daddy is accused of killing her Uncle Cade, June and PeeDee remain close friends. Yet PeeDee's life is even worse than June could possibly imagine.

**** For teenagers, this story is a real eye opener. This is what life was like for their grandparents, before electricity reached the mountain homes. For older adults, this story is like going back in time, especially if they grew up in a mountain town. Author Celia Miles has done an excellent job in bringing the past to life in this fascinating story of a little girl named June. Readers will find themselves enthralled as they read about survival in such a poor community. Highly recommended reading. ****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

Young Mattie grows up in a natural world rich in sky, plants, and fresh air. Her Appalachian mountain home and her innocence are a breath of fresh air. Having grown up in an urban setting, with the busyness and security concerns that entails, I couldn't help but envy Mattie. Kudos to author Celia H. Miles for rendering such rare "you are thereness." A gentle, poetic read.

Celia Miles has written a charming novel about the sturdy, independent people of Appalachia. She immerses the reader in authentic mountain language, as shown by these chapter titles:
"Almost More than A Body can Bear, Watson's Old Ram, Springtime Came A-gushing Misery, and Backsliding and Baptizing."
As the story opens, young June has been left by her parents with her Aunt Mattie. Aunt Mattie's husband, Sheriff Cade Greer, has rushed off before dinner to stop a fight and has just been shot. Mattie's prepared dinner is still on the table uneaten as she learns of her husband's death. The story open with her response to the news--"He went off hungry."
There follows a tale of interactions of the mountain folks as seen through the eyes of nine-year-old June, an obedient and innocent child who tries to understand the actions of the adults around her. It's also the story of her best friend, Pee Dee Rednell, the daughter of old man Rednell and sister to a peck of brothers whom the righteous church people call "rapscallions."
The reader is treated to descriptions of old mountain customs such as making lye soap, dowsing for water, wringing chickens by the neck, and killing hogs in the autumn.
The book is made richer by the author's knowledge of the history of the English language and her years of teaching on the college level. She has a unique facility with this rapidly disappearing American dialect. At the same time, the book reveals her considerable writing skill at weaving a complex plot with believable characterizations.

The story opens up in April 1945. June is nine-years-old. Her parents had recently dropped her off, at the home of Aunt Mattie and Uncle Cade, with only a pillowcase full of clothes. They reside in Jackson County of the North Carolina mountains. Uncle Cade is also the local sheriff.

The Rednell family reside at the Watsons' place. The daddy is often drunk and always cruel. Sheriff Cade has been called out to settle disputes at the Rednell's and calm the daddy down many times. This time, however, Uncle Cade is shot and killed. The daddy is arrested, but claims he did not do it. No one else is talking. Aunt Mattie and June are now all alone. It is from this time onward that everyone in the community begins calling June "Mattie's Girl".

Here the story suddenly shifts and time goes backwards. Most of the novel is set before the year of 1945. Only the beginning and a few chapters toward the end are set during June's life changing month of April 1945 and beyond. The reader learns about June's parents and what led them to abandon June with her aunt and uncle. Through June's eyes, readers learn how hard life really was in the mountains during this era of time. Readers learn about Halloween carnivals, home remedies, making toothbrushes from a sassafras bush, listening to radio shows, mad dogs, and even about Hog Killing Day. June's favorite thing to do is to read. Through her books and a few visitors, June learns that good grammar and a strong vocabulary can equal power. June's best friend is PeeDee Rednell. Even though her daddy is accused of killing her Uncle Cade, June and PeeDee remain close friends. Yet PeeDee's life is even worse than June could possibly imagine.

**** For teenagers, this story is a real eye opener. This is what life was like for their grandparents, before electricity reached the mountain homes. For older adults, this story is like going back in time, especially if they grew up in a mountain town. Author Celia Miles has done an excellent job in bringing the past to life in this fascinating story of a little girl named June. Readers will find themselves enthralled as they read about survival in such a poor community. Highly recommended reading. ****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.