Youth Books

I've been getting Shellie's newsletter "All things Southern" for years. She has a wonderful sense of humor. This is the type of book you wouldn't be ashamed to buy for your momma or your grandmomma, and these days, that's saying something! I'm going to buy a few more copies for gifts.

In her newest book, Suck Your Stomach In and Put Some Color On!: What Southern Mamas Tell Their Daughters that the Rest of Y'all Should Know Too, Shellie Rushing Tomlinson has done it again! Her very funny instruction manual bares all!

FINALLY someone has revealed all the well-kept secrets of the Southern Mama Society (SMS). We men in the South have grown up fully convinced that there were some things going on around us that molded our existences without our knowledge. We also got the feeling that we were cooperators unawares. It seemed our behavior was somehow being manipulated by unknown forces beyond our control.

IT'S ALL TRUE! . . . and its far more developed, widespread, and networked than we could EVER have imagined. Who would have known . . . but only among the Southern boys and men, of course! Our women have known these things for generations!

Here is where Shellie really lets the cat out of the bag, "...I wasn't very old before I realized that Mama and her girlfriends were good at getting their husbands to do what they wanted, all the while letting the men think it was their own idea. Some people would call this manipulation. Southern women call it charm."

"Charm" does make manipulation SOUND better. All this time I thought charm was good when it was really SMS code for "get your way."

As Shellie says, "...our mamas believe in putting a shoulder to your dreams and feet to your prayers. If you want it, go after it. Things may not always work out the way you hope, but let it never be because you didn't try. Forgive me if that doesn't fit with your stereotypical idea of the fragile southern belle who spends her days resting on the couch and fanning herself between fainting spells, but I don't know that mythical breed. The southern female of my experience is more likely to gear up for battle than retreat to the sofa."

That's been my experience, as I'm sure most Southern men will agree.

Are we Southern men ever fortunate to have all these well-hidden secrets of the SMS revealed! It will revolutionize the way we view ourselves and those women around us. Now we know the shorthand and signals of the SMS. Knowledge is power!

MEN, be VERY CAREFUL how you use this knowledge. If you get a little heavy handed, you might have to go for burgers . . . or possibly worse. The members of the SMS can get even in ways most of us have not even imagined until Suck Your Stomach In and Put Some Color On! I suspect there are at least as many that Shellie Tomlinson has not yet revealed. I'll hide in the weeds (a Southern man saying) waiting for Book 2 on the subject.

DO NOT overlook the absolutely delicious recipes Shellie includes. Check this out: Pork Roast Barbecue Recipe--This is killin' goood! It'll make you want slap yore mama . . . as we say in the South. But as Shellie points out, it's only a fool who would think of tryin'!

And the recipes for all those dips and sauces! I can't wait to try them. They suggest many of the absolutely scrumptious flavors I've learned to love in Southern cooking.

MEN, get your copy quick! This stuff is too good to miss! Don't just read it: MEMORIZE IT!

I am a huge fan of Shellie's (and have been since listening to the audio version of Lessons Learned on Bull Run Road) so I knew I would enjoy her latest book. Shellie could be my little sister. It's like we were raised by the same woman! Suck Your Stomach In helped this 48-year-old woman relive my own amazing childhood by triggering old, long-forgotten memories, and I cannot thank Shellie enough! I recently gave a copy to my dear Southern Mama as a birthday gift and she's loving it, too.

Get this book for your Mama, your sisters, and even your men who were raised by a Southern Mama. They'll love it!

My favorite feature of this book, in addition to Tomlinson's superb portrayal of true Southern Girls and their Mamas, is all of her fans' input about the advice their own mamas gave them over the years. The words of wisdom are nuggets of prose. I'm so glad it's all written down in this handy reference guide, not only as a reminder of who we are and where we come from, but also as an informative compilation for the world at large.

This is one to read, and then read again. You'll have to tell your girlfriends to get their own copies.

Lucy Adams, author of If Mama Don't Laugh, It Ain't Funny

Oh my gosh! If you're a Southern girl, you're gonna love this book! On every single page, I read something that reminds me of my Southern Mama and Grandmother, or that reminds me of something my sister and I did growing up. Quite frequently, I find myself laughing out loud, so don't read it in the middle of strangers unless you're prepared to either explain why you're laughing or just put up with the curious glances you'll get. This is a great book to pick up if you only have a few minutes here and there. There are so many little anecdotes that you could start reading on any page and read for an hour or just a few minutes and still get as much out of it. When you pick it up again, you won't feel lost like you do with some books. This is what you need to read if you want to feel good or be reminded of good family memories. I can't wait to finish it so I can pass it on to my mother, sister and daughter. When I get it back, I plan to read it again! As a bonus, it's filled with good Southern recipes!!

This is one of the best books I have read on Black life growing up in the 1950's and 1960's. It was a time of hard work and discipline for our parents as well as us. We had to learn to do without and work with what you had and be grateful for that, not like the kids of today. We all need to read this book, if not for the memories, for the kids to know what others had to go through to get where they are today and that hard work pays off. We were taught to respect each other and other people's property. It brought back many, many memories as I am an African-American as well. The way the author writes it's like you're right in the room with the family or involved in whatever situation was going on. I was brought up in the city, but my father was from down south, Texas, and he raised us the same way. It is a book for all ages, especially youngsters to see how it was back then, a real story of African-American History as well as being entertaining. A Must Read.

Survival The Will and The Way is a great book. I enjoyed it very much. I am a very picky reader and I need a book that will keep my attention. This book did just that. Every time I tried to put it down, I found myself picking it right back up to read some more. Reading about this family makes me realize how wonderful life is. Although they seemed to have it rough, they seemingly endured because of their love and togetherness. I felt for the family. The father was a bit too cruel for my taste, but it appears, however, that because of the way that the children were raised, they were better and more well behaved than many of today's children. - There was so much going on near the end, and it was so sad, I can hardly wait for the next book so that I can see what happened to everyone. (I hope that there is another one) Don't leave me hanging!

Like the author, I too was born in Alabama. Although I did not live with the conditions such as the ones that she describes in her book, I have had the opportunity to visit places like the one where she and her family lived. As I read Survival The Will and The Way, it took me home again. I could almost see the clothes hanging all around on wash day. I actually squirmed when the snake was fished from the water. For the most part, I felt as though I was there during each adventure. This book is very well written.

I believe that Survival: The Will And The Way is a novel that will be enjoyed by everone who has the pleasure of reading it. It is fresh as well as refreshing. As the events unfolds, one can visually/virtually experience each event. The cover first "caught my eye." And as I thumbed through the pages, I was hooked. The writer brings to life a time when the world was a better place. "The good old days!" Although those days might just about be gone, this book will hopefully help to bring back some of those olden days when life was simplier and Young.

Miss Young, Thank you for sharing your story. Your presentation was delightful, and the memories are enlightening and enriching. I too long for a form of discipline. I believe that if each and every child could have lived as you described, there would be less hatred and more togetherness. Sometimes folks have it so good that they forget just how good they really have it. Survival The Will and The Way describes the basic essentials needed in life: Love, respect, togetherness, a belief in religion, and a way of survival. Oh, how I wish that we all could have experienced growing up in a place like "Perote." Your Dad reminds me of my Grandfather. He was guick to pull his gun or knife. I especially enjoyed reading about "Uncle John and Doll", and how she could so easily set him off. Our family memories are precious ones. You were wise to document them. I was fortunate to be able to read them. The cover is attractive and sentimental. The size is perfect. And I like the size of the type. We have a hard back in paper weight size - perfect! You and your family have strong constitutions. I will pass this book on to my daughter. You have enspired me to attempt to document the life of my Grandmother in her honor,and for our memories. Thank you for the push! I know that your son and grandson are constantly reminded of the essentials. God bless!

The thing that a lot of people sometimes forget about poetry is that when it's good, the poems become a part of your soul. Poems lift you up when you need lifting and bring you down when you need grounding.

And this book is like that. Billy Merrell is a true poet and has the soul of a wise, wise man. And yet he's only 21! Amazing.

The poems here may be about homosexuality and family struggle, may contain drug use and have moments of sexual description, but Merrell knows that the poems aren't REALLY about these things. Instead, they are about transcending one's own childhood and one's own adolescence in order to find sanctuary in the spirits of our ancestors.

I can't recommend this book enough. Like 5 of my friends have borrowed my copy and have insisted they have their own. It's the kind of book you want to have propped up near your bed so you can read it just before you go to sleep.

I read this book the first time a few years ago, and not I think I have read it about 5 times total. It is the one book I could keep reading and never get sick of! Awesome story with poems that make you giggle and poems that made you sad. Highly recommended!!!

~*AMAZING*~ My girlfriend loved TALKING IN THE DARK and MADE me read it, which I don't usually do. She said I would like it because I like poetry, which is sort of true lately. But it took me months to find it in a store before my mom bought it online for me... since I don't have a credit cared, duh. But it's great. I haven't read anything like it before. And my girlfriend likes me to read her parts, especially SHHH and HISTORYS. Guys, buy this book for your girlfriends (or boyfriends).

I'm a little confused as to this book's classification as YA. Sure, there were sections that dealt with his childhood, but the most straightforward, poignant, and powerful poems were those that dealt with very mature topics: specifically, *after* he graduated from high school.

Some of the poems, particularly those dealing with his friend Ben and the dissolution of his relationship, are very touching. Some are a little confusing, and I found myself backtracking to figure out who was being referred to in the poem, what the topic was, and its relevance in that particular place. Poetry, it seems, is intentionally misleading at times, and I find that to be an annoying characteristic.

That said, I myself have a wealth of experiences from elementary, junior high, and high school that are ripe for writing, as they are devastatingly powerful. In my own writing classes and seminars, teachers have literally begged me to write about them, rather than the "typical" YA that I'm working on, which is more fantasy based. The problem was, I didn't know how to do it. I didn't want to write a straightforward story, because the format just didn't seem right. This book has given me some insight onto how to put my experiences onto the page. So for that - I'm greatly indebted. (Especially if I get published. )

i read "talking in the dark" over a year ago and it has still stuck with me. even though this memoir is told through poetry, it is very easy to read and understand. you can really relate to what merrell has gone through. this book is definately an amazing undiscovered gem. i highly recommend it.

This book is a wonderful book for teens. It is well written and easy to understand. It is full of important information and encourages discussion. A must read for any teen.

This is an excellent overview of the teaching of Pope John Paul II on the subject of the morality of teenage sexuality. This provides a solid foundation to establish the clear and concise teachings of the Catholic Church with regards to spirituality, virginity, abstinence, chastity, birth control, divorce, etc. The layout of the chapters is teen-friendly with a deep respect for human dignity. I have had tremendous results with the course thus far. My only regret is that as a teacher and as a parent that this course wasn't available sooner.

I teach high school morality and vocations, and this book has been a rich personal resource of both clear, relevant information and classroom activities that have been invaluable for lesson planning: prayer services for each chapter; suggested movie clips and songs to use in tandem with the text; many hands-on/kinetic learning activities; excellent journal and discussion questions; and my favorite of all teaching methods, the personal story. The authors have included a broad variety of genuine, heartfelt testimony from people of all backgrounds and experiences. No surprise that students love and integrate the principles of these stories; Jesus, after all, used that method also when He taught through parables.

This is an excellent interpretation of Pope John Paul II's incredible philosophy of our use of the body in our goal to love God. This workshop opens teens to a clear and new perspective on their sexuality, chastity, and vocations. Well done Brian, Jason and Crystalina!

I would love to see this book in a catholic high school religion curriculum. It is relevant and engaging, at least from a teacher's point of view. I think it is a good tool for opening up the discussion of sex and love with teenagers today, and more importantly, keeping that discussion going by using language that teens will not instantly tune out. It's grounded in Scripture and other specific, official Church teachings, which is essential for driving the point home with young people today. Overall, a great text.

Knowing the places in this book only help to create the images in my mind. Anyone would benefit from reading this book and being inspired that no matter their circumstances, they can achieve what they set out to do in life. I would also like to know more about the author's life after he went to school.

Absolutely amazing - the story and the writing. This book will stay with me forever. My copy is becoming old and tattered - I lend it to everyone I can.

My one line summary says it all. I am sure I was there. I anticipate each chapter anxiously waiting to see what funny, tragic desperate event is next and admiring the author for the practical and inventive mechanisms he has in place to keep his education going. I would like to know more about him in his later life.

THIS STUBBORN SOIL is a history book. No, one will not find the annals of nations set down here, nor even accounts of great wars or of vast economic movements. In these pages lie the images of poverty, illiteracy, sickness, premature death, fear, and bigotry that characterized the life of early 20th-century families enduring the ravages of both flood and drought in rough wood shacks with mud-and-straw chimneys and in poor, sandy fields where they tried to eke out an existence with a little livestock and with what few crops they could grow.

These were families for whom school was not nearly as important as having an extra hand in the field with a hoe or a cotton sack, families whose entertainment consisted of singing around an organ or a piano, the presence of which stood in stark contrast to the rest of the house, which never saw an electric light or a telephone wire. These were families that watched over their sick and watched them die either because there was no money to pay a doctor to come or because the nearest doctor was self-taught through mail-order books.

This is also the story of one boy who grew up in such an environment, who quit school many times because the choice came down to feeding the mind or feeding the body, who very nearly succumbed to the lure of wandering or of "riding the rods" as a hobo, and who was taught early on to denigrate Blacks and to hold Catholics in suspicion. In religion, he was exposed to holy rollers and tent revivals and pulpit-pounding evangelists. In school, when he went, he had teachers who had themselves barely finished an elementary education or, at the most, high school.

In this boy, however, there was something as strange and seemingly out of place as the organ in his ramshackle home-a thirst for learning and an unquenchable desire to go to school at Commerce, Texas, home of East Texas State Teacher's College, the only place he had ever heard of where he could continue his often-interrupted education. Both lack of money and inadequate preparation threw substantial barriers in his path. Of course, even before reading this book, we know of his eventual success thanks to the Ph.D. that came to follow his name.

THIS STUBBORN SOIL, therefore, is both a description of families who survived or died in a hardscrabble existence in early-1900s America and a hearth-side story of a boy whose love of learning survived all of the impediments in his path and finally resulted in the prize he sought for so long-a formal higher education. The soil on which he lived was indeed stubborn, for it yielded little and that only after back-breaking effort. He, however, was yet more stubborn, and that stubbornness bore succulent fruit.

The book is a personal memoire, and, for readers who share lingering childhood memories of dirt roads, railroad tracks past cotton fields, unquestioned racial segregation, and one or two-room schools reached by horseback or "footback," this narrative will awaken nostalgic images from the mists into which they have faded as the years have passed. For those who have never experienced the type of life Owens led as a boy, THIS STUBBORN SOIL will be very instructive and will help fill a pronounced gap in their knowledge of a large corner of early twentieth-century America. Though now out of print, copies can be found through many used-book sources, and the message remains timely, instructive and perhaps even inspirational. The book is worth far more than the effort needed to track it down, and I hope that every reader interested in American history at the personal level, in rural "local color," or even in just a well-written personal narrative will begin the search for it without delay. The reward of reading it is great.

I believe William A. Owens is all too often overlooked as one of Americas greatest authors and this book just proves my point. It is a great piece of work and an inspiration to all that read it.

Get to know a woman who takes in six little girls with out stable homes and loves them like her own. A Town Called Ruby Prairie written by Annette Smith is a realistic fiction novel filled with interest and intrigue filled with flashbacks, realistic dialog, and visual imagery. Annette makes you feel like you are part of the story with details that apply to small town living.

Charlotte Carter is a forty-year old woman who just moved to a small town called Ruby Prairie. Since her husband died and she had no children, she decided to open up a home for girls from troubled families. Tanglewood, her home, would be the perfect place to have six girls live with her. The girls were Beth, Maggie, Donna, Nikki, Vikki, and Sharita. Friendly neighbors who were always ready to help and love that would last a lifetime were all around. The girls learn to get along, learn in school, and ask for help when ever it is needed. The only problem is some of the girls do not appreciate Tanglewood, Charlotte has trouble at first with getting a schedule and things organized, and Beth runs away causing tension. Will the girls learn to love Charlotte as a second mother? Will Charlotte find love herself in a man that she least expects to find it from? Will Beth return home or be found? In the end all of these questions are answered. The lives of these little girls will make you think yours is not so bad and to live life to its fullest.

I loved reading this book in the week that it took me to read it. It reminded me of my life living in a small town. Everyone always knows what is going on and in other people's business. Annette's writing style reminded me of Michelle Magorian's because both make you feel like you are part of the story and make it seem so real. Anyone of every age would enjoy it. I loved this story so much with all of the feelings I experienced, sadness, happiness, and fright. This book is not part of any series, but if it was I would read every book that went along with it. This book truly shows how kind of hearts some people have.

A Town Called Ruby Prairie takes you back to the place where many would love to visit--or live. With warmth and lighthearted humor, Annette weaves a small-town America tale in Mitford style. The delightful thing is that places like Ruby Prairie
still exist--places where believable characters clash--the unselfish and the cantankerous; places where everyone knows your name--and your business--places where real problems abound, but where simple love and values can still be found. The characters are likeable--and will make you want to visit again. Grab your rocker, your hammock, or just your favorite easy chair. You're going to love this series, these characters, and this author.

what a wonderful story! so simple and real - i had a hard time putting it down. very inspirational in perfectly subtle ways. i bet you will love it!!

"A Town Called Ruby Prarie" is a delight - savor it. If you're a Mitford fan, you'll love Ruby Prarie. Parts of the book are very touching, while other parts are hilarious. I especially loved her description of a church service in a roller skating rink. I'm looking forward to the next installment!

What a wonderful story. While this novel is similar to Jan Karon's Mitford novels, Annette Smith's storytelling reminds me more of a cross between Phillip Gulley and James Herriott (my personal favorite.) Small town life. Community. Neighbors helping one another through the ups and downs of life. I'm so glad there will be more of Ruby Prairie. I can't wait.

Trail Mix is a great teaching tool. A group of middle- schoolers read the stories, discussed, then shared their thoughts and views in group discussions. The book is accessible, enjoyable and offers life lessons from different perspectives. The students were able to empathize and relate to the young people who shared their stories. Themes of courage, perseverence, and a love of the outdoors make for a good read. The author is to be commended. I highly recommend it, not only for the life lessons, but as a ready example of journalism students can understand.

As I read the book I was drawn in and it was as if I were right there next to them as they told there stories. The author did a great job of pulling the reader into the "wildernes" with detailed descriptions. I am certainly no book critic by profession but believe that it is a wonderful book and the stories are uplifting and offer courage to others children and adults a like. Reading the book has helped me to renew my relationship with the wilderness and the peace that can be found in the outdoors. I have recommended the book to all my good friends.

I met the author by chance. I received a copy of the book as a friendly gesture...I wasn't even sure I'd get around to reading itanytime soon. That was before I read the first page, and never stopped until I was finished...right there at the kitchen table, totally mesmerized by the messages of hope and courage.
This isn't an easy world for any of us, but adolescence is a rollercoaster ride of emotions and trials...punctuated by some fine moments if we're lucky. When the balance of life is upset by family dysfunction, illness or personal loss, life can seem almost unbearable. This book is brilliantly constructed to show the reader how hope emerges in each teenagers voice,despite their problems..how a single event, a risk taken...can change ones outlook on life forever.
Do not miss this unforgettable book. It is a touching and true treasure in an age of tedious and superficial self-help volumes. Take this spare book and open up a huge world of possibility. Outstanding!

These are stories of remarkable depth and honesty. They give us insight into children who are, in many ways, adults dealing with adult issues and problems. At times their simplicity is arresting ... and humbling. People of any age can learn from the character and truth these young spirits have brought to light.

When I picked up this book, I intended to read a story at a time, but instead,kept reading on and on until I had finished the whole book, anxious to learn how each child had handled their own crsis. This is a great book to have available in schools, hospitals, and other organizations, so that those with problems in their lives might read and be encouraged by these young people, who were courageous enough to tell their story and how they dealt with their situation. Read it and give it to an organization that can help others achieve their goal to overcome.

I have perused with great joy Jean Lubin's book for young children. As a father, grandfather and great grandfather I found Jean's work to be creative, inventive and imaginitive. A uniique teaching method and tool both for parents and Christian Education teachers. I am certain Jean's book will bless and motivate young children to learn about the Lord Jesus and themselves.

My kids love this book! They can't put it down! It is so much fun...I am getting it for all my nieces and nephews. Perfect Christmas gift, as it is a daily devotional that starts on January 1st. Finally, an entertaining way to teach young kids the basics of the Bible!

Combined with whimsical illustrations, Train Up A Child is an invaluable tool for triggering creative and spiritual talents in the developing child. I was particularly taken with the profound simplicity and love which Jean Lubin projected her own experience as a mother and a teacher and practicing Christian. No matter what your religious identity, you will treasure this book and pass it on to special friends and children.

This is like "My Utmost for His Highest" for children as young as three...up to around ten or so. I am so excited I finally found a devotional the kids look forward to...fun, creative, and powerful!

I am nine years old and even though my family is Christian, I didn't get alot of the stuff they tell me about in Sunday school. Now i do a page of Train up a child every night before I go to bed and i am really understanding that Jesus loves me for the first time. My little brother likes it too. This book is fun and great. You should get it.

Westmoreland, Joe. "Tramps Like Us", University of Wisconsin Press, 2003.

On The Road

Amos Lassen and Literary Pride

I just revisited Joe Westmoreland's "Tramps Like Us" and found it to be as wonderful and as honest as it was when I first read it. It's a novel written in the first person, a gay odyssey across the United States. It reads like a memoir and a travelogue rolled into one. We visit the gay scenes in various cities--the New Orleans and San Francisco undergrounds and also spend time in New York, Florida and Kansas City. The details are extensive as are the drugs and sex. We get a look at a wasted life but one full of humor and it works beautifully.
The book is the story of a modern Huck Finn--a guy who searches for a place to call home, for a better life. It is a novel in the style of the American picaresque tradition. Written in straightforward prose which at times is lyrical, its humor takes the reader on a tour of America during the 70's and 80's. Things were wilder then, before AIDS, and out narrator took full advantage of his sexual freedom.
When one feels like a refugee in his own country, he tries to find a place where he can fit. Here is a story of coming-of-age at that era when gay liberation began and the epidemic had not hit.
Simply told in simple sentences "Tramps Like Us" embodies both sophistication and purity (not of body but of mind). Possessing the idea of America's manifest destiny, there is an endless search for spiritual truth. Out two heroes--one who has seen and done it all, the other, a naive beginner remind us of the classic road stories.
During the 70's and 80's, the young traversed America having random sex and experimenting with drugs, concerned about music and style and living only to live. That world is gone now, we have been tempered by the threat of disease and drugs gone bad but as Westmoreland writes of it, it sounds like a place that we should all want to visit. His voice is original yet controlled. Everyone has that desire to run away but few actually do it. It is always interesting to read of someone who is running from something to something. Here our narrator (we never know his name) is running toward self-discovery.
Westmoreland gives an epic look at gay life in America with intensity of vision. Aimlessness was the way during the era of the book and the meanings offered in the book give definition to an age altered by the AIDS epidemic. I remember these years ad how things were. We lived hedonistically and without apology and it was both amusing and appalling, but it was real. Westmoreland shows us that.

What got to me most about this book is the author's absolute pureheartedness, despite the hell he's been through. (It's obvious that this is a memoir, despite the disclaimer.) To grow up middle class in the middle west in seeming normalcy, but actually with a psychotic tyrannical father who rapes one's sisters and a mother who does too little too late--and then to maintain one's goodness, well, that's a real achievement, that's something we really should take note of. In that sense, this book reminded me of Dostoyevsky's "The Idiot" because it's about someone who remains good in a world of evil.

There is a good deal of wonder in Tramps Like Us, Joe Westmoreland's engaging, accessible and only occasionally monotonous first-person novel, a work of fiction that reads like a memoir while functioning like a travelogue. Ripping through a series of fevered gay scenes, mainly in underground New Orleans and San Francisco, and briefly in Florida, Kansas City, and New York, Westmoreland's nose for telling detail is always keen, even as his narrator's stays buried in an endless supply of heroin, coke, and whatever other drugs he can get his hands on, along with a non-stop catalogue of frantic sex, dead end jobs or simply joblessness. Combine these trappings of a wasted life with the raging humor evident on nearly every page of this book, and you have a brilliant mix.

The United States of the 70s and 80s that comes across in Tramps Like Us is a relatively easy place for the aimless, good looking, young men and women who fill its pages, so it's especially fitting that Westmoreland let's his characters' actions speak for themselves. It's admirable also that there's a minimum of authorial comments and editorializing, though Westmoreland does spend a great many words on his own thought processes -- as his drug-addicted narrator, who it's impossible ultimately to separate from the author-would be prone to do.

And it's only initially disconcerting that episodes seem to bog down as if with no discernable trajectory, because it's not until the book's last quarter - and the onset of the AIDS epidemic - that one sees, horrifically, that there has been an ongoing and unspoken direction. What happens to the narrator and his circle, who are not passive so much as resolute in their addictions, does have a cumulative effect. Details do not merely agglomerate: they evince meanings greater than the sum of their parts.

If you're young enough to have missed these turbulent years and this lifestyle (no doubt persevering somewhere), this book may be a welcome and probably rude eye-opener. If you simply don't want to believe that people ever lived as hedonistically and unapologetically as they do in Tramps Like Us, you will be amazed and probably appalled. But you won't begrudge the read.

What a wonderful book. Honest, funny, poignant, and ultimately full of the sorts of things that sees a thinking person to actually come through rough experiences to some sort of peace. If you ever wanted to read "Candide" hits America in the late 70's and early 80's this is your book. Joe Westmoreland really has something here. Highly, highly, highly recommended.

This is a wonderful book in the American picaresque tradition, a great read that I couldn't put down. Westmoreland's clean, straightforward, often lyrical prose and deadpan humor carry the reader along on his journey through the America of the mid-70's to 80's. It's a tender reminder of wilder times, told by a narrator who you can't help but love whether you're gay or straight, male or female, or ... whatever!

Joel Agee's Twelve Years: An American Boyhood in East Germany offers a hilarious and universal account of the passage from boyhood to manhood. Enjoying this book does not require an interest in its unique setting. Never mind that the entire work occurs between 1948 and 1960 in the Stalinist dictatorship of the German (un)Democratic Republic; or that the author's Jewish American mother is living with her children and second husband in the anti-fascist Soviet Satellite of the only recently vanquished Third Reich; or that the author's biological father is Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, James Agee; or that his stepfather is an East German writer whose socialist themes become less relevant the more the dictatorship he lives in takes hold. Joel Agee so powerfully conveys the challenging and exciting passage of a male from age eight to twenty, that distinctions of place, time, name, and circumstance meld into a broader truth.

By page thirteen, the book's ever more ironic and outrageously funny form takes shape -- the fibs to Mom, friendship mischief, the struggle to fit in with peer groups, and the stirrings of sexual awakening that should have long ago made this work a classic.

I too have been urged by friends to write a book about my youth. In 1981, at the age of 18, I decided to reunite with my father and immigrated from the USA to the DDR. I was later expelled in 1986 for political reasons and lived elsewhere in Europe until my return in 1991 following the Fall of The Berlin Wall. I remained there until April of 2000 at which time I returned to the USA.
This book brought back some memories despite the difference in time. (The Author went to the DDR in 1948 at the age of 8. I went to the DDR in 1981 at the age of 18) I had no idea that there had been any other Americans that shared an even remotely similar story and Joel Agee does a great job of telling his story with far more emotion and prose than I ever could.
The book is a wonderful insight into life in a country that no longer exists...from the view point of an American child/young adult. I especially recommend it to anyone who has grown-up or lived in a country where they felt they did not belong. In my opinion, Agee entered the DDR in its infancy and left just as its darkest period began. I entered The DDR at the height of the Reagan Era and witnessed its collapse from within. Two historic phases. I only wish that both of us could have witnessed more.

I read Joel Agee's book "Twelve Years. An American Boyhood in East Germany" in German and in English and tried very hard to get a used copy of his first american edition - without any success. Finally, he is back again with a new edition, and allthough my english is not as good as it should be, I just want to write down some words abaout this book. For me who always lived in Western Germany it is one of the most interesting books about the communist part of Germany, the GDR (in german it's DDR). It was not meant to be a political book, but it has become one anyhow. The reader is not only enabled to follow a very private story of growing up as a boy (including all the problems most man - since they have been boys - know and prefer not to talk about it), but to understand how culture and everyday life had been transformed by the communist ideology in a way that could be critizised only by children: some simply laughed about it and learned, that even only to laugh could have negative consequences. And getting some idea of how adults did discuss the political penetration of everyday life makes you feel glad to be grown up in a non communist state - but still you can understand that this adults they had their living like others had, and that they were fathers and mothers having everyday problems like others had. This book indeed touched and pleased me. It is a marvellous written autobiographical kind of literature. If you'll read it, it will take a part of your heart and your intellect to. You'll have to love it.

I'm delighted to see that Joel Agee's memoir is now available again, and I look forward, with pleasure, to re-reading it. In beautiful prose, Agee not only reveals the pains and pleasures of his growing up (it could be anywhere), but gives us a portrait, from an unusual angle, of life in the newly formed German Democratic Republic, i.e.,communist East Germany, during the period 1948-1960. The historian will find the book of particular interest, but so will anyone else who enjoys entering the unsual world of a sensitive young man with a terrific eye for detail, and who is frank about his inner life.

Agee returned to the U.S. just as the amazing 60s were about to roll their thunder, and I can't wait to read his follow-up memoir, his "American Manhood" in another world far removed from the East Berlin of his youth.

"Twelve Years: An American Boyhood in East Germany" is a fascinating memoir. Eight-year-old Joel Agee was brought by his mother and stepfather to the Soviet zone of Germany (what would become East Germany) in 1948 and lived there for the next 12 years. As Agee's stepfather, Bodo Uhse, was a prominent Communist, Agee had the best that East Germany could offer: a villa with servants, summers at the Baltic Sea, and numerous opportunities to recover from his dismal performance at school. Agee does provide an insight as to how the Communist intelligentsia in that country thought -- their explanations for the closed border, their view of the Stalinist (and Soviet-bloc) purges in the early 50s, and their conflicting views of Khruschev's revelations. This memoir is also a coming-of-age story, filled with teenage angst and sexual frustration. What distinguishes this from many other memoirs is that it is exceptionally well-written. Although Agee was never able to get his bearings in the East German school system (or was, as we would say today, a "slacker") his descriptions are almost poetic. Well worth reading.