Georgia Books

One day I was sitting in my recliner, not having a pity party, but just evaluating my life. I have a son who is a successful doctor. Another owns his own plumbing company. Another is sought after in the field of computer programming.

I also have two grown children that I sometimes refer to as my "gifts- that just keep on giving". These 'kids' are 32 (my youngest son) and 36 years old (my husband's bipolar daughter who is also on street drugs). If ever the Lord has spoken to me (and I know He has)..it was this day. Thoughts were flowing. "I don't know what NORMAL is. I tried to envision what it would be like to have a family gathering where my functioning kids could interact with the two 'outsiders'. What would it be like to not cringe when the phone rings with the next drama, to plan a vacation for me and my husband where we could just go and have a GREAT TIME without worrying about which one of them were having a crisis! I went on to the realization that "I am all USED UP. There is no more. There is NO joy in my life. No smiles. No laughter. No fun. No hope". Just me, waiting for the next round. My functioning children don't even KNOW me anymore because I have been so consumed with the two that require my time, energy, money and support.

Keep in mind, this was NOT a depressing awakening. It was LIBERATING! But I realized I needed a support system because it wasnt going to be easy to keep from falling back into my routine of "fixing" everything for every one else. I started looking for reading material and am so thankful that I ran across this book. I empathized with the author about her son - she and I shared the same feelings and some of the same experiences. The entire book just clarified to me what I needed to do to REALLY help these children. It reinforced the fact that this is not a selfish thing I am doing- it is the MOST GIVING,MOST LOVING, MOST UN-SELFISH thing I can do for my grown children - to quit trying to protect my grown kids from themselves and their consistent poor choices. I had been giving them just enough leash to see them get close to the fire and then I'd step in and try to salvage their lives. That day, I unhooked the leash and my grown kids are free to go. They know I love them but I am not available for any more drama caused by their irrational behavior and their poor choices. I am starting to live a life where I actually laugh a lot, I smile a lot, I am a fun, kind, thoughtful, interesting person and I have a LOT to give.

This book gives you the reinforcement you need wherever you presently are on your road to 'recovery'. I can honestly say that I have never read a book on this subject that so captivates me - every single page has reinforcement or encouragement or useful suggestions or motivation on how to make life begin again for YOU and also for the grown child who is getting ready to find out that it is time for him/her to grow up and take responsibility for their own decisions. I'm smiling as I write this because I know I'll never go back to those days and I have great hope for my son and step-daughter. They are in the shock stage right now - we're watching for signs that they will catch the next wind and soar like eagles. If they don't soar the first time, we'll be happy with just a flapping of wings. But they're going back to their OWN nest this time.

GREATEST OF GREAT BOOKS FOR THE PARENT WHO IS AGONIZING OVER THEIR GROWN KIDS CHOICES!

From the opening pages of this book, readers know Allison Bottke understands firsthand the struggle which parents have to set boundaries with their adult children. This book combines the personal stories from Allison with practical hands on help to escape the insanity and move toward hope and healing. She mixes her own heart-stirring experiences with sage advice from many others. This book is easy to read and yet for some will involve tears to apply to their personal lives. It is a much needed resource that hopefully counselors and many others will read, then recommend to others.

I couldn't wait to get this book and I wasn't disappointed. It has helped guide me with decisions I have had to make that I didn't think I could make and follow through with. The reinforcement that the author have given me has helped to make my life easier, knowing I am making the correct decision based on studying the book. If you are living with an enabling situation or are not sure if you are an enabler, you should read this book. I hightly recommend you order Setting Boundraries with Your Adult Children by Allison Bottke as soon as possible to receive the help, peace, and reinforcement you need.

If you can take the truth, this is the book for you. The book can only be helpful if you are ready to hear the author's words and incorporate them into your own personal situation. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has been living with an adult child who refuses to "get it" Excellent.

I was listening to Neil Boran one day and he spoke about giving..I wanted to know as a Christian - when do you "stop" giving - and he highly recommended this book "Bottoke"..sorry just can't think of the name right now and I lent it to my sister. We have had a family crisis for almost 4 years now where we have been supporting our brother (50 years) and it is going nowhere. He continues to be destructive, critical about the world, and does not take responsibility for "his" responsibilities. He continues to make things worse for him and his sisters (6) have been picking up the pieces...this book brought great insight into the situation, it made me realize that I need to trust God for his well being, I am part of the problem..and now sharing with my other sisters who continue to "feel" sorry for our brother. It does not help him and I have now taken a firm stance with the understanding that God does not "expect" me to take on my brother's responsibilities..yes we help, we love, we try guidance and support but enough is enough because when he does not listen - it becomes our fault..and it is true. We enable them to depend on our support and they can do as they please as there are no consequences for their actions. God needs to be his support not me or my sisters..( my brother is a Christian and has been longer then I have). His actions and behaviours were confusing me in my own walk with the Lord and it was scaring me..so this book has brought me guidance, support, comfort and action on how to deal with this. Most of all it helped me deal with my guilt and build my "trust". True love of someone - sometimes will hurt terribly, but ultimately I am trusting the Lord that what ever my brother's ends/situation will be - it is between "him" and God..and I hold on that God always works things to the better..
I highly recommend this book for young parents who are having difficulties with their teenagers,young adult children..even young children..it should be read prior to their children getting older..because as parents "love" and doing is not enough..we have lost the ability to "teach" and sometimes teaching/learning is difficult, painful...nothing worthwhile is without pain and hard work...the Lord has taught us that and that you will find in this book in a manner that is practical and usable in today's world...great stuff...

Eric Calonius has obviously done an immense amount of research and transformed it into a beautiful work of art. It is a very entertaining and INFORMATIVE novel. If history repeats itself, one can and should learn from his mistakes. This should be required reading for all poiticians!
Harold Markovitz

I enjoyed the book and am glad the author took the time to write the story down. It is worth reading.

Perhaps the author would consider writing about the schooner Clotilda which arrived in Mobile in 1860 with 110--116 captured Africans. The story is known locally so Mr. Calonius would not really have known about the Clotilda. The whole sorid affair was undertaken on a drinking bet. After the War, the former captives settled north of Mobile and named the area Africatown (Prichard, Alabama).

In the book The Wanderer: The Last American Slave Ship and the Conspiracy That Set Its Sails, one is first given a fine portrait of the genteel life of some of the South's more prosperous families. But that picture becomes clouded when business man Charles Lamar of Savannah, Georgia decides to import African slaves long after the trade has been made illegal in the fledgling United States. What ensues are lives turned upside down, deals gone awry, travesties of justice and the underpinnings of secession on the eve of the Civil War.

Erik Calonius has done his homework, quoting from articles from papers on both sides of the Mason Dixon line, as well as providing references to source documents regarding the ship building business of that time, agreements between the United States and Great Britain to patrol the high seas for human contraband and myriad other accounts of the politics of the day. This story has so many twists and turns that no writer of historical fiction could have bested it. But the sad truth is that it is not fiction. In fact this episode has probably not been presented in the average high school history class. I would hope that producers for the History or Discovery channels would bring it out as a documentary film in order to allow access to it in the popular media.

One side effect to reading this book is that I was taken to look back in my own genealogy when I found that one of the key players shared my surname. To my surprise, for better or for worse, I found that I indeed share ancestry with that individual.

A pleasant and heartwarming epilogue does await in the end when one finds oneself asking throughout the book, "Whatever happened to the Africans that were brought in illegally?" But don't skip to the end - you'll want to absorb every detail of this rich story, replete with colorful personalities, action and suspense. Truth is stranger than fiction.

Fascinating.

Some reactions from our book club: "How come I've never heard any of this before?" "Hmmm, looking back at this story helps me see just how bullying today can lead us astray on every level", and "...those Fire Eaters and the lives that were lost by so many who didn't understand the economic scheming that really got that war going."

The club is planning a trip to Savannah but the scenes painted by Eric Calonius are vivid enough without the tour.

A most readable, enjoyable and important book. We would recommend it to any book club ... it kept us reading and stimulated rich discussions.

Let me begin by saying that this is not a book that I would normally have any interest in reading. As a general rule, the topic of slavery is of almost no interest to me, and I tend to avoid the subject due to lack of interest. However, this particular book sounded like it might be interesting, so I decided to read it.

Erik Calonius is a career journalist who has had some plum assignments in his journalistic career. The Wanderer is his first book, and he should be very proud of it. The topic got his interest on a visit to Jekyll Island, outside Savannah, Georgia, when he saw an exhibit to the Wanderer. Intrigued, he started looking into it, and decided to tackle a modern telling of the story.

The slave trade was made illegal in the United States in 1820. However, some of the Southern firebrands who were pushing for secession also strongly favored reinstating the slave trade. Charles Lamar, a relative of L.Q.C. Lamar and of the second president of the Texas Republic, led the conspiracy. Lamar and his co-conspirators purchased the Wanderer, a magnificent yacht, and took her to Africa to bring back a load of slaves in 1858. His crew managed to evade the British and American naval vessels patrolling the coast of Africa and safely made it back to the United States.

Even though their purpose was a very poorly kept secret, Lamar and his co-conspirators managed to evade justice through a combination of corruption and bullying. They made witnesses disappear, tampered with evidence, and made it impossible for the government to convict them of piracy (the crime of importing slaves was designated an act of piracy, and carried the death penalty). In three separate trials in 1859, Lamar and his co-conspirators were all acquitted and escaped justice, in spite of the best efforts of the Buchanan administration to convict and execute them.

There was poetic justice: Lamar was killed in action during the Civil War, and the Wanderer, which was seized and sold by the government, ended up in Union service during the war.

The book is well-researched and very well-written, which I would expect of a senior journalist of Mr. Calonius' credentials. He has brought a topic which would normally not interest me to life with an engaging writing style that almost reads like a novel. The book does have one of my pet peeves: instead of providing specific end note references, they're lumped together at the end by page, which drives me crazy. If one were interested in further research, or reading the primary sources for oneself, this style of footnoting makes it virtually impossible to do so. I absolutely despise that footnoting style. I suspect that was the publisher's call-and not Mr. Calonius'-so I can't necessarily fault him for it.

What I liked best about this book was how it so accurately and amply used the microcosm of this single incident to demonstrate how the agenda of the fire eaters directly caused the Civil War, and how they paid the ultimate price for their calumny. It also demonstrates how the inertia and passivity of the Buchanan administration allowed events to come to a crisis situation. The inactivity of the administration permitted a few fire breathers to flaunt the law for their own purposes, and their actions in doing so directly triggered the Civil War. Ironically, the prosecution of Lamar and his co-conspirators was left in the hands of Buchanan's attorney general, Thomas Howell Cobb of Georgia, who later became a Confederate general.

I was pleasantly surprised by this book, and can highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in the causes of the Civil War.

From beggining to end this book couldn't have been much more interesting, unless I was riding along too!!! Marvelously written, 100% entertainment from cover to cover. Ir would make for an excellent screenplay, even though you couldn't make it better than this book.
It is supposedly fiction, but you wouldn't really know from his descriptions.

This book grabs you and sucks you in from the first page. By page 10, I couldn't put it down. Well written and entertaining, uniquely insightful about growing up male and Southern. I'd recommend this for anyone - my girlfriends loved it, my brother tried to steal it from me.

I never dreamed that I would grow to care for the redneck crew that inhabit the pages of Drive Like Hell. What captured me was Dallas Hudgens' ability to take me inside the heart and mind of an adolescent boy and to show me the humor and sensitivity that reside there. What had me rereading many of the pages was the sheer beauty of the author's words. He describes scenes with such richness and precision that he has you breathing the same air as the characters in his novel. And, as with all great reads, he has you lusting for a sequel!

All of the music references made this book so enjoyable. I picked up my son's copy, and I'm not sure which one of us liked it more. Anyone who's ever been a teenager living in the South (or anywhere for that matter) will identify with Luke Fulmer. Drive Like Hell is funny, suspenseful, and moving, and I can tell that Hudgens is one heck of a Southerner. He's the real thing--and he even manages to work Jack Nicklaus into the story.

Hudgens has spun a compelling tale about Luke, a 16-year-old Southern boy in the late 1970's who is about to have a series of life-shaping experiences. The reader gets to see Luke deal with scrapes with the law, his first girlfriend, his first experiences driving cars legally (and illegally), the minor and major-league drug deals, and coming to terms with his alcoholic mother and absent father. All of this is told with true Southern charm and a fantastic cast of characters--a likeable but gruff sheriff out for political gain, a zany foreign chef who made salad dressing with Paul Newman, a breezy petty thief who happens to be a charming girl, AA teetotalers, and my favorite off all, an unbalanced former professional football player who lives in the moment and has tons of cash to thrown at his mistakes.

I'm not a Southerner, but I was charmed by these just-to-the-side-of-the-law rednecks and car lovers. Let's hope Hudgens treats us to a second story about Luke's career as a bail bondsman.

A Gift of Mourning Glories details the process of restoring your life after loss. The book's cover reflects the message inside. On the front are the delicate purple morning glories, covered with drops of dew. They remind me of the passion in Georgia's heart and the tears that brought her healing. Loss can be described in many ways. We often associate loss with death, but what about other losses? Have you experienced the loss of a job, marriage, health or income? The secret to recovery is looking for the gifts that are the treasures within the tragedies. Georgia quickly affirms that, "We think we are weak if we don't quickly bounce back". In this fast pace life we live in, she explains the steps necessary to begin restoration. We must clear out the old in order to begin the new. Georgia emphasizes persistence and not making excuses. She describes how God will take us beyond our fears and stretch us. We can all learn from our mistakes if we aren't afraid to make them. Georgia says, "When we slip up, don't give up. A Gift of Mourning Glories tells us how to search for the riches stored in the secret places. Rest and trust in God's divine plan, that is the key. Fill your empty basket with the promises of God and your empty basket will be filled with new beginnings, hope, joy and a new purpose.

A Gift of Mourning Glories addresses the weighty issues surrounding the pain of loss, without being too "heavy" for those already overwhelmed with grief. Georgia shares with warmth and candor the lessons she has learned through her own experiences. She offers suggestions which are practical and relevant. Readers will feel inspired and encouraged by this uplifting book!

I found this book quite comforting after my brother's suicide in January 2001. Ms. Shaffer's use of Scripture along with gardening analogies made it easy to read. I was so inspired by her style of writing that I went searching for morning glory seeds. I began germinating right away and gave seedlings to my friends, neighbors, church family and even people I did not know. Two months later, my family relocated to Nebraska and by late summer there were beautiful flowers of heavenly blue, baby blue, and pink along the fenceline...a gentle reminder of the fragility of life.

In Texas, an elderly neighbor had once planted morning glories. I would wake each morning, draw the curtains and count the blossoms as they unfolded. On one certain morning, there were over one hundred gorgeous blue flowers...one hundred blessings that I may have taken for granted. Thank you, Georgia, for encouraging me to sow those seeds of hope.

A Gift of Mourning Glories could be called a book of encouragement and inspiration. And you don't have to be recovering from a difficult loss to benefit from it. I bought it to give to a friend with cancer but ended up reading it myself. The short chapters gave me inspiration on how to live my life with more awareness of God's presence and guidance. Although I am not a gardener, I found Georgia's illustrations and analogies from her garden very helpful. I also got information on how to deal with my friends who are undergoing difficult times. I must give them time to grieve. I highly recommend this beautiful and inspirational book.

Cancer has become a household word these days, because every home, family and community has been touched, on some level, by its icy grip. In Georgia's book "A Gift of Mourning Glories", she lets us walk with her on her journey with cancer; from brokenness, to restoration of body, soul and spirit. The deeply personal feelings and experiences that Georgia shares, gives hope to the weary and encouragement to the downhearted. Georgia's struggles were not limited to cancer alone, but divorce and single parenting along with losing her job and health. Just as Jesus used the simple daily things of life to teach deep truths about victorious living, so also has Georgia used her garden to help teach the skills needed to restore life after loss. Just like Georgia's gift of morning glory seeds were not a "wanted" gift, not every gift we are given is "wanted" either. Many times, suffering and struggle are not viewed as "wanted" gifts, but God uses the hard times of our life to root us deep in His truth and love, so we can grow up tall and healthy for the glory of His beautiful garden of grace. This book is a must for everyone struggling to overcome life's darkest hours. In fact, I feel it should be in every Doctor's office waiting room, for it is there that we sit with our fears and worries. It is during those times, when pain opens us up, that we are made able to learn the depths of God's love and provisions for our lives. I have given this book to many dear friends who are hurting and discouraged and they have been comforted by it. "A Gift of Mourning Glories" is a great book for anyone that finds themselves in a support role with a cancer patient or huring loved one.

I loved this book for what it taught me. It's almost like a riches to rags story. One who started the journey to faith with such strength and then fell on the way. This book is sad in the sense that the author who believed herself to be set free now is okay with homosexuality and has even embraced it. I feel sorry for her. She will be held accountable on that final day when she meets God.

I am living out the same experience as the author's and I was deeply moved by her story. It validated my own feelings and helped me to better understand the feelings of my gay ex-husband. I was touched to read that their friendship was sustained through it all and it gives me hope for the same. Any married couple dealing with this devastating situation should read her memoir.

This is an excellently written work that addresses the confusion and the struggle of being in a relationship with someone who is at odds with their own sexuality. To further complicate matters, this book tackles the issue of being deeply entrenched in Christian Fundamentalism while dealing with a spouse who is coming to terms with being gay. The author tells her story in a very open and personal way. It is written much like a novel or short story, yet it is powerfully "real". It is a book that you have a hard time putting down because you want to find out what happens next. Recommended reading for anyone who has a gay family member or friend who has come out after being married and having children.

A moving book, quite heart-rending at times. And yet frustrating as well. Too many pages are given to the crushing and authoritarian leaglism of their early faith which ultimately counts for nothing. As the doors of self- and God-understanding open, I yearned to know more to hear more of their internal transformation and the remarkable people who cross their paths--like Madelaine L'Engle. The climax of confrontation and decision was gripping but I sensed a gauzy filter descending thereafter, masking the grit required in reconsituting lives and relationships.

In a work of rare honesty and compassion, Sally Lowe Whitehead shares her heart with the reader. While focusing on the painful reality of discovering that her husband and the father of her children is gay, this work deals with much more. It is an honest and sometimes painful account of the author's coming to terms with a Church that is often unforgiving and unloving. Whitehead's journey toward faith and forgiveness is both moving and challenging to the reader. It is impossible to read her words and not re-evaluate one's own ideas and prejudices. The Truth Shall Set You Free is a work that is not only honest in its presentation, it is one that encourages the reader to equal honesty.

Searching for wisdom today usually brings to mind countless books on how to get ahead, or rich, or thin, or powerful. Schlegel has not written a how-to book for modern success, but the story of his own discernment of the difference between wisdom and knowledge.

Although Schlegel went to the Philipine island of Mendanao for an intellectual purpose, a study to complete his doctoral dissertation on the Teduray tribe, he found himself impressed with a style of life and social interaction that most westerners would call primitive. Schlegel saw not only the value and benefit of the Teduray lifestyle, he found his own life influenced by these people in positive ways.

The tribe is now extiinct, wiped out as the result of political conflict, but the wisdom of its ways has not been lost, it lives on in Schlegel's depiction in this book, providing wisdom to those who search for it in unpredictable places.

The people you will meet in this book are cooperative, peaceful, egalitarian, and truly democratic. They also live in harmony with the earth. There have been many books about tribal people, gathering- hunting societies, like the Bambuti of the Congo rain forest, the Kung Bushmen, the Inuit, Native Americans. Most of these people have values similar to those of the Forest Teduray. Gathering - hunting societies have to be cooperative because its the only way they can survive. There are no hierarchies for the same reason, and women are always at least equal to men because in most such economies they provide 70- 80% of the food Nevertheless the Forest Teduray are a special kind of people for a number of reasons. They are semi agricultural, and they live in villages rather than small bands, and these villages are connected to each other in a very loose, unstructured federation. And yet they have not only maintained the basic core values of traditional gatherer- hunting peoples, but have developed and refined them into a way of life that not only works perfectly for them, but actually seems possible for our own society. It is a bit of a stretch, I admit, and the historical record is hardly encouraging. It does appear that nation states must always develop male dominated hierarchical and violent, aggressive societies. Buit there is no compelling reason to believe that this is necessary. The Teduray think it is "no way to live" . Just imagine living in a Teduray world: a global human society living in harmony with everyone else, and with the planet. As difficult as it will surely be to get there, it's got to be worth trying. I never saw a better manual for how to live this way than Wisdom from a Rain Forest. The Teduray really know how to live, and they know how to talk about it. I think the world needs this book, and I wish everyone would read it. There are always many books on the best seller lists about how to fix your own personal inner life, to provide soup for your soul or something. But maybe we can't do any of that by ourselves. Maybe we need to work together to build a healthy society. A way to live the Teduray would call "just right". Many times you may hear people say "this book changed my life". I have always believed this is not really possible, that no book can ever really do that. This book changed my life.

The people you will meet in this book are cooperative, peaceful, egalitarian, and truly democratic. They also live in harmony with the earth. There have been many books about tribal people, gathering- hunting societies, like the Bambuti of the Congo rain forest, the Kung Bushmen, the Inuit, Native Americans. Most of these people have values similar to those of the Forest Teduray. Gathering - hunting societies have to be cooperative because its the only way they can survive. There are no hierarchies for the same reason, and women are always at least equal to men because in most such economies they provide 70- 80% of the food Nevertheless the Forest Teduray are a special kind of people for a number of reasons. They are semi agricultural, and they live in villages rather than small bands, and these villages are connected to each other in a very loose, unstructured federation. And yet they have not only maintained the basic core values of traditional gatherer- hunting peoples, but have developed and refined them into a way of life that not only works perfectly for them, but actually seems possible for our own society. It is a bit of a stretch, I admit, and the historical record is hardly encouraging. It does appear that nation states must always develop male dominated hierarchical and violent, aggressive societies. But there is no compelling reason to believe that this is necessary. The Teduray think it is "no way to live". Just imagine living in a Teduray world: a global human society living in harmony with everyone else, and with the planet. As difficult as it will surely be to get there, it's got to be worth trying. I never saw a better manual for how to live this way than Wisdom from a Rain Forest. The Teduray really know how to live, and they know how to talk about it. I think the world needs this book, and I wish everyone would read it. There are always many books on the best seller lists about how to fix your own personal inner life, to provide soup for your soul or something. But maybe we can't do any of that by ourselves. Maybe we need to work together to build a healthy society. A way to live the Teduray would call "just right". Many times you may hear people say "this book changed my life". I have always believed this is not really possible, that no book can ever really do that. This book changed my life.

This is a very good, readable book. It depicts a culture in which helping others was the normal--not the charitable--thing to do. The mindset of the Teduray people of the Philippine rainforest, with whom the author Stuart Schlegel lived for years, is a world view that, sadly, seems almost unbelievable for people who are indoctrinated into a capitalistic system. It's like a splash of cold water in the face. Wouldn't it be nice for every Anthropology 101 student in the U.S. to experience this book, if for no other reason at all simply to face the fact that there are human mindsets possible that are not ruled by money, greed, scarcity, and conspicuous consumption?

I believe that it is always beneficial to step outside our own culture for a while, to see how others live and how we can learn from them.

Especially when the culture we are observing is one as beautiful as the Teduray. They, like so many indigenous people, lived their lives with the well-being of the community as their focus. This is in sharp contrast to the lonely and individualistic lives of so many Americans.

The people of the Teduray village in which Dr Schlegel lived were all massacred years ago. We find this out in the beginning of the book. It was heartbreaking for him, as he lets us know. Then, as you go on to read the book, learning about his two years with the Teduray, you get to know the people - their names, personalities, lifestyles - you come to care about them. I found that knowing they had all been killed led me to place greater importance on learning from them. The temporary nature of their lives gave permanence to the wisdom they imparted.

They lived beautifully, communally, with great compassion. I felt humbled, and grateful to have read their story and learned from them.

I highly recommend this book. It is lovely, heart-centered, and written by a clearly beautiful man.

And if you like this book, you probably will also like The Continuum Concept by Jean Liedloff. I learned many of my better parenting skills from this book - another study of living within an indigenous community.

Not only is this cookbook chocked full of interesting recipes, but it is gorgeous! The photos accompanying each season are breathtaking - if you can appreciate the subtle beauty of food itself.

First off, I must say that I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Chef Ramsay enjoys the flavor of lavender and chocolate as much as I do! I used to make white chocolate and lavender truffles for the spring and I was thrilled to see a recipe for "Mille-Feuille of Chocolate with Lavender": a light dark chocolate ganache with steeped lavender piped over layers of puff pastry. He even serves lavender flavored ice cream on the side! Simply beautiful.

Obviously, the chapters are divided by the four seasons. At the beginning of each chapter, Chef Ramsay informs us as to why the vegetables, fruits and meats belong in each season. Followed are the recipes which may seem a bit daunting to the average chef. As in his other books, there is a good mixture of easy dishes that make this cookbook worth its weight.

Spring recipes that were fun and easy included "Whiting with Lemon and Parsley Crust", "Ricotta Gnocchi with Peas and Fava Beans" and "White Chocolate and Lemon Mousse".
Summer recipes include "Lobster with Mango and Spinach Salad", "Poached Salmon with Gewürztraminer Sauce" and "Loin of Beef with Watercress Puree".
Fall recipes that were a joy to make are "Lentil and Langoustine Soup (I substituted Cray Fish for the Langoustine)", "Tomato and Parmesan Gratinee Tarts" and "Monkfish with Creamy Curried Mussels" (a bit expensive but makes a great romantic dinner for two!). Winter recipes we enjoyed were "Smoked Haddock and Mustard Chowder", "Seafood in Nage with Carrot Spaghetti" (you do have to make the Nage(a vegetable broth) ahead of time but it is totally worth it!) and "Veal Chops with a cream of Winter Vegetables" (we actually substituted the Veal for Chicken and it worked well. Pork chops might also work, but you are not going to get the same texture.)

Again, at the back of the book is a plethora of cooking techniques, broth recipes and miscellaneous kitchen information.

`A Chef for All Seasons' by the English high tempered chef, Gordon Ramsay looks like and is very much of a `follow the trend' book, just as `healthy eating' and `quick cooking' themes are bandwagons on which cookbook writers jump to squeeze another ounce of interest out of their audience for their latest book. Unlike some other seasonally or calendar oriented books such as Alfred Portale's `The 12 Seasons', Nigel Slater's `The Kitchen Diaries' and Brother Victor-Antoine d'Avila-Latourrette various `Twelve Month' cookbooks, the recipes in this book offer little real guidance to when it is best to make these various recipes. As the author himself says, for him, summer begins in early May and most of the best produce is available closer to autumn than in high summer.

Except for a very few fruits and vegetables such as fava beans and strawberries in spring, tomatoes and corn in late summer, there is little reason aside perhaps from cost from restricting oneself to strictly seasonal produce, except for price. While my favorite local supermarket carries excellent asparagus the year around, it's price jumps from $1.99 to $2.99 in late summer, to drop back a dollar in March, and briefly drop to $1.69 (a pound) in May and June. So, I don't eat asparagus at $3 a pop, but do eat it every other month. Similarly, I don't make dishes with beefsteak tomatoes quite as often in the winter and spring as I do in high summer, but I don't eschew them entirely in winter. So, unless you are willing to literally graph out prices and availability of produce based on supermarket prices in your area, most seasonal considerations seem like a waste of time. Because, if you can't get it at all (like fresh fava beans in October), the question is moot, and if you can get it at a reasonable price and at a reasonable quality, the small difference between seasonal and off seasonal produce shipped in from Chile probably won't make a big difference to you, especially when you are looking at Master Ramsay's recipes, where the prep and cooking time are worth far more than that extra dollar you may pay for off season blueberries.

The other side of the coin is that Gordon Ramsay's recipes are very, very good without using excessively expensive ingredients except as options and they are (relatively) easy for `haute cuisine' dishes. So, this book is more of an argument to select Gordon Ramsay as your primary source for fancy dishes, instead of Eric Rippert or Albert Portale or Tom Colicchio or Joel Robuchon or Michael Romano or Charlie Trotter. Compared to many of these chef / authors, Ramsay is equally as fussy, but manages to follow the dictum of using the best ingredients and being as careful as possible not to muck them up. And, unlike some of his preachier colleagues, he concentrates on the simple procedures rather than on the gratuitous yapping about using fresh ingredients. For us in the peanut gallery, we pick the best that we can get without traveling 20 miles out of our way. Even foodies have a life beyond cooking and marketing.

For those of you unfamiliar with Ramsay's style, it is very, very French in technique with lots of creamy sauces, soups, and confits. It may not be the kind of thing you would pick for a low calorie diet, but it is not quite as fat laden as the provincial cuisine of southwestern France (see Paula Wolfert's excellent new edition on the subject). As usual, the most sprightly and revealing blurb on the back cover comes from the always eloquent Tony Bourdain, who describes this as `...food porn at its most lush...', a far more original approbation than the overworked `decadent'.

I confess I was not immediately as impressed with this book as I have been with some of Ramsay's other books, but this is largely due to what seems like less general information on cooking technique and more space on the recipes themselves. There is, however, still a fair amount of gems on various foods here. For example, he gives an excellent argument for preferring your mangoes firm and not quite ripe to the squishy red ones soft to the touch. But, the very best part of the book for the foodie cook is the last section on `basic recipes and techniques', especially if your library is not already filled with tomes from Jacques Pepin, the CIA, and James Peterson on basic kitchen skills. The most interesting recipe here is the one for `Vegetable nage' that on the surface is very similar to a vegetable stock, but it seems to be a cross between a veggie stock and a court bouillon. It is not cooked as long as stocks and it seems to have a longer refrigerator life than meat or fish stocks. While this is a classic French term and concept, I have not seen recipes for it in many other books. By pure coincidence, I noticed a very similar recipe in the book `Full On Irish' by Irish Michelin starred chef, Kevin Dundon which he describes as a kitchen garden vegetable stock. I don't even recall seeing this in Deborah Madison's great works on vegetable stocks.

All of Ramsay's measurements are Yankee friendly, as everything is measured by cup, spoon, or count and not by gram or liter. He also does a better job of displaying ingredients lists so that units and ingredient names are all put on separate lines or columns. Unfortunately, he does not do this in the `basic recipes' section. But, since almost all items are simply counts, the problem is not acute.

This is another reason to make Gordon Ramsay your celebrity chef/writer of choice, especially as his books are reasonably priced and very attractive to look at, with full oversized pages of well-chosen pics (but without captions!).

Recommended.

If only Gordon Ramsay had been writing cookbooks when I was learning to cook some 50 years ago, I never would have bought another series of cookbooks. He's that good.

Rather than a culinary version of "A Man for All Seasons," Gordon Ramsay's "A Chef for All Seasons" is a wonderful collection of great (read "Scottish") recipes.

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Gordon Ramsay's A Chef for All Seasons is a cookbook you can use for those super special occasions: when you want to impress those friends, who love to cook themselves, or when you just want to eat really awesome food yourself. A lot of the recipes call for expensive ingredients, like lobster, goose fat, the obligatory truffles and foie gras. But there are also quite a few recipes with more common ingredients, which are real gems. I just want to mention the Veal Chops with a Cream of Winter Vegetables (even Gordon calls this "a nice recipe for a mid-week dinner") and the Pillows of Ricotta Gnocchi with Peas and Fèves.

The recipes is divided into four chapters, one for each season, which is a great plus in a cookbook. Each chapter contains recipes for starters, entrees and desserts. The last chapter is Basic Recipes and Techniques, which contains instructional photographs. Finally, the index has entries for each ingredient used.

It's great fun to read about how things are done in Gordon Ramsay's restaurant, e.g. "Boil the potatoes still in their skin until just tender. Drain and peel them while hot. (We do this wearing rubber gloves to protect our hands.)" in the recipe for Pillows of Ricotta Gnocchi with Peas and Fèves.

His perfectionistic style makes some recipes seem harder than necessary. After following his recipe closely the first time I make it, it is usually easy to see some shortcuts without sacrificing the quality of the end product (I imagine that Gordon will wholeheartedly disagree with this).

To conclude, I would highly recommend this cookbook for the experienced cook, who wants to surprise others (or her/himself) with great food.

Even if you are not interested in the Bulldogs of Georgia you probably will find "Damn Good Dogs" a delightful book; beautifully illustrated, the book relates the history behind the English bulldogs that have become the University of Georgia's mascot beginning in 1956. Sonny Seiler, who has owned the bulldogs, has put together (with Kent Hannon), a pleasing book filled with many photographs. A chapter is devoted to each of the dogs relating their lives and what occurred while they were mascot and the growing fame of the Ugas. I first saw this book on a visit to Savannah and was charmed by it from the moment I opened the cover.

This is a large format book that was thoughtfully designed and is a great tribute to the remarkable dogs named Uga.

I am a lifelong University of Alabama fan but I have always known and admitted that Uga is - bar none - the coolest dog on the planet. And any dog who bites back at an Auburn player knows his football! My all-time favorite was Uga V and I was thrilled when he was rightfully named the greatest mascot ever by Sports Illustrated and made their cover. I was also excited to see this book.

This book is a great overview of the lives of the Ugas, their owners, and the Georgia football program. If you love dogs and college football, you'll love this book.

This is a good book. I highly recommend it to Ga. fans. UGA is a staple of the entire Georgia program and his lovable story is one that all college football fans can enjoy. I recommend "A Tailgater's Guide To SEC Football" as well for any serious SEC Fans.

Despite the fact that I am from Georgia Tech, the long time feud of UGA, sarcastically, I am also an English bulldog lover, having owned 2 English bullies in my life thus far. I highly recommend this book to all bulldog lovers, even if they are not associated with UGA.

Guaranteed to please all Georgia fans and English Bulldog lovers, this entertaining book contains the individual stories of six beloved Ugas who have served as mascots for the University of Georgia since 1956. Filled with delightful photos, illustrations and memorabilia spanning nearly five decades, it is loaded with fun facts, heartwarming stories--even poems written in their honor. Uga flies free on Delta, has an air-conditioned doghouse and an official Student ID Card, eats steak, attends social affairs, occasionally wears a tux, has appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated, in Coca Cola ads, in Playboy magazine, in Animals Who's Who, on credit cards, in movies, TV shows--and more! Following lavish funeral tributes, Ugas I through V were interred in a mausoleum at Sanford Stadium with inspiring epitaphs outlining their achievements engraved on bronze tablets. Uga VI has already made a name for himself "woofing" his encouragement to a well-deserved SEC title in 2002. GO DAWGS and long live Uga VI.

The essays that comprise this collection put me in mind of river stones, each compact and perfectly polished, each dense with the weight of insight and experience. The essays are generally brief, yet rich with detail; comparisons to Thoreau or John Muir are more than appropriate. I generally prefer reading a book to listening to one, but this is an exception. Amy Blackmarr's voice is southern and evocative in that soft, slow sense that puts me in mind of warm nights on a front porch. You will quickly feel you are beside a small pond in the South Georgia pines.

You know she's a great writer when she spins her words so profoundly and beautifully that it makes you cry within seconds....then listen with all senses vigilent...then laugh out loud....then cry again in a final release of everything you had left in your emotional arsenal of defenses. Amy Blackmarr's work in this audio is nothing short of a spiritual awakening...without the obligatory regligious overtones. Wherever you come from, no matter what you're looking for, listen to this, and you will be healed in some way.

I had the privilege of hearing an advance copy of the new complete Audio Book of Amy Blackmarr's classic, GOING TO GROUND:Simple Life on a Georgia Pond. Blackmarr's pleasing southern voice, combined with Chase Anderson's Indian flute and fiddle introductions, makes for wonderful listening that takes you right to the heart of the Georgia pond and simple cabin, which is the setting for the book. Humor is one of the book's strongest points, and it comes through funnier than ever in the author's excellent telling of the characters and the ubiquitous mice!

A book about leaving the city, leaving your business behind and moving to Georgia. I wonder why it was that I became so enamored of this book and it's author. Becuase, I'm about to do the same thing. This is the kind of book that I could probably read again and again. It suanders. It meanders. It is relaxed. It's scope is wide, it's execution is simple and effortless. I found myself yearning to be the author's guest at her little cabin by the pond. I wanted to pet her dogs, drink a beer with her neighbors. I wanted to walk in her woods. Fantastic job at gentle memoir.

Young South Georgia woman gets off the fast train, returns to family's shack by the pond, then delivers us a way to enjoy her experiences and reflections. The sparce prose of Amy Blackmarr lets you sit back and relax awhile. You'll also enjoy the sequel, House of Steps, where she moves to a peculiar little house out in Kansas. Her outlook on life is quite refreshing. Both books are short, too, so they're great for summer trips to the beach, or weekends out in the backyard.

While reading Tony Horwitz's recent book, "A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World", about his travels through the Americas to rediscover the early explorers and colonists that preceded Jamestown and Plymouth, I became fascinated with those who came to America a full 100 years before Jamestown, particularly Hernando De Soto's 4 year plunge into the wilderness of America with his 600 man army in 1539. In spite of failures by previous Spanish explorers, including one army that lost all but 4 men, De Soto marches throughout the entire southeast from Florida, as far north as Tennessee and North Carolina to as far west as northeast Texas in a vain search for gold and other precious metals. De Soto's journey is fascinating in that he marches through the wilderness and unknown with an unusual measure of confidence while encountering an amazing society of Indian tribes totally unlike what American's perceive of the Indian culture based on their knowledge of American Indians post Jamestown. These tribes had concentrated villages with advanced agricultural development, a networked culture with a central chief, an upper class and they utilized great mounds for the base of the homes of their chiefs and to a lesser degree, their other important tribal members. Based on eye witness accounts left in chronicles and secondary sources, Hudson, tells the story of De Soto's travels and encounters with the Indians that is even more fascinating by Hudson's ability, aided by archeology, to trace a pretty accurate mapping of De Soto's travels. The cruelty inflicted by De Soto and his followers seems counter productive particularly as they are frequently at war with the various tribes they encounter as they in turn depend on the Indians supplies for survival. Thus 220 years before Sherman's march, De Soto also lived off the land creating even greater devastation in his wake. What is very interesting is the detail about the Indians encountered, the names of the towns, biographies on the various chiefs, the detail of their lifestyle and the intriguing explanations of the built up mounds that are still present throughout southeast America. The initial part of the book provides a good history of the early Spanish explorations before de Soto, the closing chapters explains what may have happened to these advanced Indian cultures that were in apparent decline before de Soto and virtually melted away before the tribes known today became prevalent like the Cherokees, the Creeks, Chickasaws etc. The final section covers the great debate and documentation of De Soto's route that was seemingly well documented through the Smithsonian but has more recently been proven to be less accurate by current scholars such as Hudson. If you are only interested in de Soto's travels, this is the meat of the book and whether you have interest in the final sections, this is still one of the best books on De Soto and those lost American tribes who seem related to the Aztecs without the stone necessary to similar stone structures, they in turned built mounds.

Written by Charles Hudson (Franklin Professor of Anthropology, University of Georgia), Knights of Spain, Warriors of the Sun is an in-depth scrutiny of Hernando de Soto's history-making mission of exploration between 1539 and 1542. Taking pains to recreate as precise a geographic answer as possible to the question "Where did De Soto go?", Knights of Spain, Warriors of the Sun retraces De Soto's steps along a map, with supplementary black-and-white photographs and illustrations, recounting De Soto's adventures, perils, and encounters with Native Americans as accurately as possible. Accessible to lay readers and historians alike, Knights of Spain, Warriors of the Sun is a welcome addition to public and college library world history shelves.

I enjoyed this book immensely. As a guy who can take something as dry as "Darwin's Origin of Species" to the beach for the weekend, this is a real page turner. The author does a wonderful job of assembling journal entries along with well documented historical data, into an enjoyable read for the interested lay person. It reminds me somewhat of "Undaunted Courage" by Stephen Ambrose in both its well documented historical accuracy, and attention to readability by the consuming public. I bought this book mainly out of a life long interest in Southeastern Indian culture, and an interest in the terrain of the region before European settlement. The book delivered in spades on both accounts. I am surprised Hollywood has left this story alone. There is enough violence, death, greed, deceit and sex for 5 movies in Desoto's story.

K Cook

I probably first read or heard about de Soto in high school, but until recently he was just a name, one of dozens of Spanish Conquistadors. Then in 2002 while traveling through the Tampa, FL area I came across a National Park commemoration where he first landed on a 4,000 mile 3-year trek through North America. Being there in person my imagination was fired and I've been fascinated by de Soto's journey ever since. I can still smell the salt air, hear the surf and see the Spanish horsemen moving through the shadows of the red mangrove forest. In terms of discovery and epic adventure de Soto equals the story of Lewis and Clark.

This is the single best book available about de Soto, representing 20 years of research and incorporating the latest in archaeological evidence. The route is historically a subject of great controversy, each state has commemorative trails and sites that occasionally change with new scholarship.

The books is a masterpiece incorporating details from many layers to create a highly textured and easily imagined vision of the Spainards and Indians. Hudson is an anthropologist and takes a multi-disiplinary approach which creates a much richer work than a straight historical narrative. Hudson used a "braided narrative", inter-twining the chronological history of events with the latest anthropological evidence - the effect works well.

I found this book to be an excellent read. I could almost hear the clanking of armor and smell the smoke of the Indian village cooking fires. I would recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in early Southeastern Indian culture as-well-as sixtenth century Spanish conquest.