Georgia Books

After last year's impressive "Let Them Eat Data: How Computers Affect Education, Cultural Diversity, and the Prospects of Ecological Sustainability", this new book of Bowers establishes him in my view firmly as the Noam Chomsky of Environmental Education. Just as the latter has convincingly shown that the entire spectrum of mainstream politics, from conservative to progressive, shares in fact the same basic convictions with regard to Western capitalism and the US's right to govern the world, Bowers has made clear that almost all educational theories that were elaborated in the last half a century, including those intending to be progressive and radical, ignore the cultural roots of the ecological crisis we face. However radical and critical they might be of the capitalist system and its exploitation, they still buy into the modern myths of anthropocentrism, linear progress, development and the autonomous individual as the basic social unit. By doing this and by largely ignoring the environmental degradation, these theories perpetuate the system they claim to criticise.
Against these theories of Dewey, Freire, Peter McLaren, Henry Giroux and others, Bowers sets his eco-justice-based approach. Its most fundamental element is the insight that any educational reform has to be set within the framework of sustainability. Or in Bowers' words: "Reform efforts that contribute to eco-justice must address the right of future generations to inhabit an environment that has not been diminished by the greed and materialism of the current generation." This is the sine qua non and whatever we endeavour as teachers has to be judged against this background: "environmental issues must have primacy in thinking about educational reform." Bowers is very clear about the fact that only a society that reduces its dependence on consumerism, technology and experts can repeal the commodification of all aspects of life and thereby stands a chance of survival.
I believe that Bowers is a unique voice in the discourse of environmental education/ education for sustainability. This is due to two aspects of his work: firstly, he has the courage to question deeply held believes and fundamental convictions which others either dare not touch or are unaware of. Secondly, he has recognised that educational practice cannot continue to be a specialist discipline ignorant of the wider world around it. Only if education, just like any other (professional) activity, is framed by the limited carrying capacity of our planet, will there be any chance of it fulfilling its potential.

After last year's impressive "Let Them Eat Data: How Computers Affect Education, Cultural Diversity, and the Prospects of Ecological Sustainability", this new book of Bowers establishes him in my view firmly as the Noam Chomsky of Environmental Education. Just as the latter has convincingly shown that the entire spectrum of mainstream politics, from conservative to progressive, shares in fact the same basic convictions with regard to Western capitalism and the US's right to govern the world, Bowers has made clear that almost all educational theories that were elaborated in the last half a century, including those intending to be progressive and radical, ignore the cultural roots of the ecological crisis we face. However radical and critical they might be of the capitalist system and its exploitation, they still buy into the modern myths of anthropocentrism, linear progress, development and the autonomous individual as the basic social unit. By doing this and by largely ignoring the environmental degradation, these theories perpetuate the system they claim to criticise.
Against these theories of Dewey, Freire, Peter McLaren, Henry Giroux and others, Bowers sets his eco-justice-based approach. Its most fundamental element is the insight that any educational reform has to be set within the framework of sustainability. Or in Bowers' words: "Reform efforts that contribute to eco-justice must address the right of future generations to inhabit an environment that has not been diminished by the greed and materialism of the current generation." This is the sine qua non and whatever we endeavour as teachers has to be judged against this background: "environmental issues must have primacy in thinking about educational reform." Bowers is very clear about the fact that only a society that reduces its dependence on consumerism, technology and experts can repeal the commodification of all aspects of life and thereby stands a chance of survival.
I believe that Bowers is a unique voice in the discourse of environmental education/ education for sustainability. This is due to two aspects of his work: firstly, he has the courage to question deeply held believes and fundamental convictions which others either dare not touch or are unaware of. Secondly, he has recognised that educational practice cannot continue to be a specialist discipline ignorant of the wider world around it. Only if education, just like any other (professional) activity, is framed by the limited carrying capacity of our planet, will there be any chance of it fulfilling its potential.

Samuel Beckett is known most widely for his plays ("Waiting for Godot") and his prose ("Molloy") than his poetry, but this collection displays to the reader that Beckett had a mastery over every literary form, including the world of verse.

Beckett's poetry bears many of the same styles and composition methods as other 20th century writers such as T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound, but where these others focused on themes of isolation and disenchantment, Beckett employs striking stream-of-consciousness imagery to relate particular moments in time, snapshots of everyday life filtered through the perception of a mind raging with repressed anger and sexuality (see "Whoroscope" for a prime example). Furthermore, his poetry, similar to his drama and fiction, is rife with religious symbolism and allusions, much like his contemporary James Joyce.

Those looking for bombastic, rhythmic, romantic poetry with witty rhymes and colorful adjectives probably won't find Beckett amusing, but the emotional energy and pure expression of this Irish genius' verse should not overlooked.

Keep in mind, also, that many of the poems are in French, though the author translates a few for comparison.

Samuel Beckett is very celebrated as a playwright and to a lesser extent, as a novelist. However he is phenomenally underrated as a poet. This relatively short volume shows much of the poet's work in English and in French often with parallel translations, as well as Beckett's translations of poems by famous French poets.

For anyone passionate about Beckett's work, this collection of poems will be an absolute gem. Perhaps it is because of the brevity and concision of verse, but it is within poetry that Beckett's bleakness takes on its greatest power. Here he conveys in an 8 line poem, what he would spend an entire play expressing elsewhere.

As well as the awesome nature of his own work, Beckett gives English translations of other poets who bear a striking resemblance to his style. Poems such as 'Scene' and 'Second Nature' have a power that is rendered even more immense through Beckett's translation.

To all Beckettian readers I say that you do not know the true beauty of his work until you have familiarised yourself with his phenomenal poetry.

Very seldom do I read a book twice. ENTERING THE STONE is one of those books. Barbara Hurd's reflections seep under your skin and take you places you've never been. It is frightening and revealing and profound. Hurd has discovered that in our deepest journeys a secret space may emerge, a white dog, the shape of emptiness, a spacious room.

It is a strange blessing that I ran across an excerpt of this book online and sought it out. The local library had a copy. I wondered about the experience of a novice spelunking. What I found was one woman's meditation on sorrow and loss and fear and awareness, and how reason and passion, how space and solid, how dark and light criss-cross and make the liminal experiences telling.

Please don't fault her beforehand if I sound too intellectual about it, too. It's a beautifully written exploration of the meaning of life, but it's sometimes very down-to-earth, too.

I hope that Larry Shriner publishes more! His book grabbed my attention on the first page and I couldn't stop turning the pages! I love his work.

This book should receive a lot of attention. Shriner has done his homework. It is refreshing to read a novel that does not fill space with four-letter words and sex. I hope to read more of his novels.

For the three days, I've been carrying around a little book, "Essentials: Jean Toomer."
This 90 page book illustrates Jean Toomer is far more powerful far than what is usually granted, by narrow racialists, to this author of "Cane". I believe Toomer is one of the the most important thinkers of the twentieth century.

Toomer's "Cane" was published in 1923, is considered by many to be the first literary work of the Harlem Renaissance. "Cane" was published before he met Gurdjieff. "Essentials" was published in 1931, seven years after he met Gurdjieff and while he was leading a group of people in Chicago who were attempting to practice the Gurdjieff's system of pyschological/philosphical method of living. "Essentials" had a very small run and was uninteresting to most of those people expecting a repeat "Cane." Here is a sample of some of Toomer's aphorisms: "Men are inclined either to work without hope, or hope without work. ... Social ills are caused by man's wish to have results greater than his efforts. "
This "Essentials: Jean Toomer" is an edited version of "Essentials" and has been re-published by Rudolph Byrd, a professor of African American Studies at Emory University. Nothing has been taken out of "Essentials"; however, something is added:
1. the former unpublished introduction, by Gorham Munson, written for the original.
2. a preface by Charles Johnson, African American author of National Book Award winning "Middle Passage"

Johnson says, "In American Literature, Toomer is unique -- a metaphysical pioneering genius, and this volume ['essentials'] of distilled reflections are indeed essential for the [twenty-first century]."

Jean Toomer was one of the great literary figures from the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920's. His signature work, Cane, is known by most people who have studied African-American literatureo. Lesser known to readers is this brilliant work, Essentials, published in 1931.

After his success with Cane, Toomer disappeared from the literary scene to pursue his own philosophical and psychological inquiries. He went against the grain of his time which believed African-Americans were not capable of exploring the world of metaphysics, let alone psychology. Toomer, way ahead of his time proved them wrong as he sought enlightenment in the teachings of George Gurdjieff. During this time (1924-1935), Toomer published this slim volume offering his attempts to grapple with the experience of what it means to be human.

Essentials is a collection of Toomer's ponderings in his search for wholeness in a fragmented world. Drawing on modern psychology and eastern religious belief Toomer falls into the comapny of Emerson, Thoreau and Gibran as he deals with that which is transcendent. He revives the use of aphorisms to convey timeless truths in a world which is incable of moving beyond its limited definitions of life.

Long ignored, this work gives us a glimpse of Toomer's metaphysical side. Through it we capture another alternative view of dealing with reality. It is essential reading for anyone interested in metaphysics, African-American literature, Toomer and as an example of a Black writer who refused to be limited by definitions of race for his life. Think on his words. Grow in the wisdom shared by a great literary giant of the 20th century.

I've enjoyed Mr. Goodrich's earlier books (Anarchy and Elegance and Roadster), but Faith is a Verb really is more than enjoyable, it is inspiring. Mr. Goodrich manages both to give an objective history of Habitat for Humanity and make the reader want rise from his armchair, grab a hammer and nail gun, and do something for the community.

Goodrich alternates chapters describing Habitat's genesis (the religious and social missions that infused it then and now) and how he participates in a local chapter, building houses in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

First Goodrich describes the meeting of Clarence Jordan, a Southern minister, bible scholar and social activist, with a spiritually searching, burnt out businessman, Millard Fuller, in May 1968. In Louisville, Jordan, Fuller and handful of summer missionary students formed a "koinonia" or "fellowship". Goodrich reminds the reader how in the Bible, "The spirit of Jesus, through Peter, forms a koinonia in which he and his disciples `had all things in common: and sold their possession and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.'"

In what I understand is one of the only accounts of the two men's relationship, Goodrich describes their meeting in a church in Atlanta. Goodrich says,

"One word kept coming up: partnership. Koinonia Farm was founded on that ideal, of course, but this new project - however realized - would be fashioned after a different model, defined more broadly, because both men had seen previous partnerships - Fuller's marriage, Jordan's `demonstration plot' - damaged by overconfidence and impatience, narcissism and narrow-mindedness. ...Fuller... had learned the hard way that partnerships do not exist in name only; they must be worked at, cultivated, honored. As a lawyer, he knew the importance of gathering facts before passing judgment, and as a sales-savvy businessman, that customers respond better to carrots than sticks, to respect than condescension. Fuller believed he had The Answer to the world's problems - faith in God - but had learned that lasting commitment occurred mainly when people came upon answers in their own way, in their own time, with their own cultural inflections."

Originally, Habitat planned to push three programs: manufacture, farming and homebuilding. However, only the third took off:
"The work that captured many imaginations, to an extent no one had foreseen, was home building. Snapping lines, laying block, nailing shingles, hanging doors; there was something new every day, some novel obstacle to overcome, and you never knew, going in, whether you'd be teacher or student, expert or apprentice, brains or muscle. And the experience brought home more than the idea of building community; it embodied the thought, for both volunteer home builders and future homeowners. Everyone marveled at the like-mindedness of such different personalities and perspectives, and felt themselves part of Something Big... and soon to grow much bigger."


Sometimes Goodrich -- and the product that at root he is supporting, Habitat -- get a little preachy. For example in a chapter entitled "Amateur Hour", he writes:
"If every U.S. citizen worked hard on somebody else's truly significant problem, saw what progress could be made through a few hundred hours of collective sweat ... well, who knows what might happen."
However, this preachiness is excusable, when both the author and the organization prove so effective. (Habitat has built housing for over one million people.)

Goodrich also occasionally spouts a little social science babble: "A true partnership explores divergent views, finds common ground, constantly remakes itself; never forgets that a vision can be selfish as well as selfless and everything in between."

But, just when Faith falters, Goodrich pulls back. For example, after the above, he describes a Tropical Build he worked on in the Dominican Republic.. Here, mixing and pouring a concrete roof (with the help of no machinery except a wheelbarrow) in hurricane territory, he says, he and the other volunteers felt they were fulfilling "an honest-to-God need - an actual want, not some manufactured "want" invented on Madison Avenue, Wall Street, Silicon Valley."

It is this `want' - this genuine feeling, ultimately, with which the book leaves the reader. I strongly recommend it.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Faith is a verb by Chris Goodrich. The book covers facts regarding the history of the organization Habitat for Humanity and the author's experiences volunteering. Goodrich writes about the places, the people, and the volunteers he has encountered during his five-year experience with Habitat for Humanity. The author speaks straight from the heart, some of which brought tears to my eyes, some of sadness, some of laughter. Even through all the heart-wrenching sights, Goodrich and his crew persevere, regardless of the obstacles they face. Goodrich's experiences include traveling around the world, from America to London from London to Paraguay even getting lost in the Sierra, Faith is a Verb, is a fantastic read. In addition, the book opens a person's eyes and heart to the devastation and suffering that many see everyday of their lives. The book puts into perspective just how lucky we are even though we may not think so; it made me not only look at my ethics and values but also encouraged me to pick up that hammer.

PHYLLIS HOLLAND SWEEPS YOU INTO HER FAMILY HISTORY AND THE STORIES AND FOLKLORE OF THE OLDEN DAYS OF SOUTH GEORGIA IN THIS WONDERFUL BOOK OF SHORT STORIES. YOU FEEL LIKE YOU HAVE GONE BACK IN TIME AS YOU READ THESE ACCOUNTS OF WILD HORSES IN SMALL TOWNS, OLD CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS, MYSTERIOUS LIGHTS IN THE SUMMER NIGHT SKY, AND THE HEALING TOUCH OF MEN AND WOMEN OF LONG AGO. THIS BOOK IS TRULY A FAMILY HERITAGE PUT INTO WORDS AND HAS CAPTURED THE INTEREST OF ALL AGES FROM 9 TO 90! A MUST READ FOR THOSE WHO LOVE TO HEAR STORIES OF LONG AGO AND FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO FEEL CONNECTED TO THE PAST! I CAN'T WAIT FOR A 2ND EDITION!

This intriguing book of short stories from times past brings back memories and raises questions that go beyond logical explanation. Are there connections to relatives long gone from this earth? The writers style is like listening to the folks portrayed within the stories...humurous...curious...and down right hair raising at times... Ghosts, magic and sixth senses are woven into this literary journey through the back roads of the south. A wonderful collection of stories for anyone who has even the slightest interest in the past or abnormal occurances. Enjoyable for all ages. My twelve year old devoured the book in one reading...my 87 year old grandmother enjoyed reliving her past... A must read!

Diane Roberts attempts to tackle the enormous topic of Faulkner's female characters. Roberts divides her study into six sections (Confederate Woman, Mammy, Tragic Mulatta, New Belle, Night Sister, and Mothers) focusing on a type of character. Roberts asserts that she "found it useful to recover some of these stereotype, or stock characters, to read Faulkner as a product, as well as producer, of the multifaceted place (and metaphor) called the South" (xi). Further, each of the six sections is further subdivided into a portion that demonstrates the context and representation of the archetype and into other portions that discuss the role of the archetype in Faulkner's fiction. Faulkner and Southern Womanhood's organization makes it a useful tool for scholars with a variety of pursuits. Students interested in a particular character type can look at individual chapters in Faulkner and Southern Womanhood, since Roberts's chapters read well as stand alone essays only rarely referring readers back to other chapters of the text.
The introduction of Faulkner and Southern Womanhood clearly delineates the structure which Roberts will follow throughout her book as well as mentioning the school-of-thought which influences her study. Roberts defines the six archetypes which she chooses to interpret in terms of Mikhail Bakhtin's use and explanation of classical and grotesque bodies. While Roberts does employ theorists, including Bakhtin, Derrida, and Cixous, to greater and lesser degrees, she maintains a prose style free of the opacity to which abstract literary theory lends itself. The combination of literary theory and language accessible to lay readers increases the range of students who might find Roberts's work useful and interesting.
Roberts uses the archetypes to "show how the models held up for women to measure themselves against come into play in Faulkner's fiction" (xiii). Faulkner and Southern Womanhood does not hunt for stereotypes so much as it finds echoes of stereotypes in Faulkner's corpus. Roberts demonstrates that though the stereotypes are shadows of Faulkner's characters, Faulkner is subverting the social order that constructs stereotypes to control women by deploying these dehumanizing stereotypes in his own fiction in a manner that demonstrates the paradoxical and false nature of the stereotypes.

This book is exquisitely written, fascinating--I highly recommend it not only for the Faulkner scholar, but for anyone (like me!) who is interested in his writings. Roberts' writing remains free from pretentious jargon, unlike so many scholarly works, and the ideas posited are original, thought provoking, and just plain INTERESTING!

Atlanta PI Sunny Childs tells her flighty cousin Lee-Lee no when the girl asks her to go to the small Georgia town of Jackson in Flournoy County to help her with a film documentary she wants to make about a killer who is about to get the needle. Dale Weedlaw is going to be executed in less that a week for the brutal murder of a pair of girls. Lee-Lee sees this documentary as her big break. Sunny sees it as just another of Lee-Lee's erratic stabs at some kind of stardom.

However, after being in town for only a short while, Lee-Lee is arrested. Seems she's been asking too many questions, irritating the locals, who apparently don't like big city outsiders poking around, especially women, and if just one in town irritates them, imagine how they're going to feel after Sunny shows up, bails her cousin out and then starts asking questions herself. Sunny isn't a flighty, inexperienced, wanna be somebody. She knows who she is (well kinda) and she knows what she's about (well kinda) and she knows how to kick you know what? So when she confronts a small southern town full of secrets they want kept secret, secrets they're willing to let an innocent man die for, secrets they're willing to do anything to keep left in the dark, well Sunny is in her element and you will be too if you give this outstanding chick P.I. book a read. Sunny is a fabulous character, tough and resilient and not too, too irritating. I just love her.

Reviewed by Sara Hackett, who just adore's her husband Jack Priest's books Ragged Man, Gecko & Night Witch.

Atlanta's Peachtree Investigations top private investigator Sunny Childs refuses to help her enthusiastic cousin Lee-Lee film a documentary on death row convict Germind Dale Weedlaw, who is to be executed in Jackson in a few days. Dale was found guilty of brutally raping and killing two women in Flournoy County.

Not long afterward, at two in the morning, Sunny, sleeping with her fianc? FBI Special Agent Barrington Cherry, receives a collect call from a prison in Flournoy County from Lee-Lee, who has been arrested. Three hours after the call, Sunny and her brother attorney Walter arrive in the office of the county's sheriff in Pettigrew, Georgia. Lee-Lee insists she was falsely arrested because of her questions about the Weedlaw case. Sunny and Walter get her freed, but the sleuth stays around to keep the filmmaker out of trouble. They soon find stronger suspects than the convicted as they interview hostile locals.

In her sixth appearance, Sunny is at her best as she deals with her zealous cousin and townsfolk who would prefer to lynch the outsiders than answer their inquiries. The story line focuses on a serious topic of capital crime while also uses family relationships and some local eccentric characters to provide humor. Ruth Birmingham shows why this is an award winning series with a fabulous regional mystery.

Harriet Klausner

Offers a range of essays intended to represent the range of new critical perspectives on the literary art of Flannery O'Connor and reflect the directions in which O'Connor scholarship has moved over the previous fifteen years.

Rath remarks in the Introduction that, while some of the essays "probe issues that, until recently, had been ignored," others address "longstanding debates in light of new critical insights from gender studies, rhetorical theory, dialogism, and psychoanalysis."

Essays feature discussions of O'Connor's early stories, her canonical status, and the feminist undertones in her use of the grotesque.

Of particular interest is the volume's 200+ item bibliography and its cumulative index.

Along with Rath's ten page "Introduction," the volume includes the following essays by a literal "who's who" of the O'Connor scholarly community:

Brinkmeyer, Robert H., Jr. "Asceticism and the Imaginative Vision of Flannery O'Connor."

Fodor, Sarah J. "Marketing Flannery O'Connor: Institutional Politics and Literary Evaluation."

Gentry, Marshall Bruce. "Gender Dialogue in O'Connor."

Giannone, Richard. "Displacing Gender: Flannery O'Connor's View from the Woods."

Gordon, Sarah. "'The Crop': Limitation, Restraint, and Possibility."

Kennelly, Laura B. "Exhortation in Wise Blood: Rhetorical Theory as an Approach to Flannery O'Connor."

Paulson, Suzanne Morrow. "Apocalypse of Self, Resurrection of the Double: Flannery O'Connor's The Violent Bear It Away."

Reesman, Jeanne Campbell. "Women, Language, and the Grotesque in Flannery O'Connor and Eudora Welty."

Shaw, Mary Neff. "'The Artificial Nigger': A Dialogical Narrative."

Yaeger, Patricia. "Flannery O'Connor and the Aesthetics of Torture."

R. Neil Scott / Middle Tennessee State University

I was privileged to be introduced to Flannery O'Connor's works in Dr. Rath's Fiction class at Louisiana State University in Shreveport. At the time, I wasn't aware that Dr. Rath is considered to be one of the most important authorities on O'Connor's work and life.

Dr. Rath once told us in class that he would describe his feelings toward O'Connor and her writings as love, and were she alive, he might seriously consider leaving Mrs. Rath for her. Of course, he was joking, but Dr. Rath writes about Flannery O'Connor's work and life with a passion that few can match.

Flannery O'Connor is perhaps a greater writer about the South than William Faulkner. She had a life cut short by chronic illness but in her short life she managed to write some of the most memorable stories I've ever read.

You will enjoy Dr. Rath's writings about Flannery O'Connor. I encourage you to do an online search for his articles and essays once you have read his book on the subject.