Deep South

Book Description

This evocative collection by internationally acclaimed photographer Sally Mann is a masterful reinvention of the art of landscape photography. Sally Mann remains among the most innovative, talked-about, and daring artists working with a camera today. DEEP SOUTH is a much anticipated collection of her exquisite, ethereal landscape photographs, taken in the years since she rose to international fame with her groundbreaking book Immediate Family. The photographs in DEEP SOUTH, many produced with the 19th-century collodion process and a variety of toning techniques, capture what Mann calls the radical light of the American South. Borrowing methods favored by early masters of landscape photography, Mann bends classic craftsmanship to serve the expressive needs of a heightened contemporary sensibility. Serendipitous technical imperfections, such as light leaks or scratches on negatives, echo the accidental, chaotic workings of time. From ghostly images of historic battlefields to painterly visions of Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, and her native Virginia, Manns landscape photographs transport the viewer to another time and place.

Customer Reviews:

Exquisite and Haunting Landscape Photography.......2007-01-12

Landscape photography has never spoken to me until this book. Sally Mann has created gorgeously abstract and ethereal images of the south and has coupled it with very eloquent text. It has forever changed the way I feel about landscape photography. If straight up landscape photography isn't your thing, by all means give this book a chance.

moving photos .......2006-11-22

I am again deeply moved and awed by Sally Mann's work. Using older photo processes, combined with a deep seeing, these photos create a sense of place that I can feel as well as see. Ms. Mann also writes beautifully about these images and the people and place she is photographing. Though I shoot digitally, I am still inspired and in some ways try to emulate what I'm seeing here

I like the imperfections of these images, but if you want bright colors and tack sharp images, these my not be for you.

David.

seeing through the opaqueness.......2006-04-25

whether this is Mann's best work it certainly is the most thought-provoking, when you think of the Deep South, you think of a place much like Stravinsky's Russia,Eastern Europa,or parts of New York State intolerant,class-orineted;superstitious,but also one that savors progess and the science of the image, the sensual,the evocative,but a place also defeated,Appomattox, that really has takened long to live with, in fact defeat is covered everyday in the macho-isms that has been part of popular strains in music.
The opaqueness-es of Mann's reveals a fascinating abstraction,touched daguertypes, I don't know the correct technical affiliation,and that takes you someplace,it has rails to take you someplace,but more like an archeologist for you do merely sit and stare,and examine closely; where you need to decipher the layers of history,meanings seems to be held in abeyance for now, suspended the layers of reference, and this might be difficult for someone who has not really lived in these places, in Virginia,Antietam and Manassas, but these are works of art nonetheless you return, Mann does draw you into her work; to again and again and you cannot say that for other of post-modern forms, yes these are manipulations as if Mann had lived herself in the Civil War,as a recluse held up in a forgotten city, as Knoxville or as the viewer had lived then and these are remnants of this discovery.
Her photos are of natural landscapes, spots, where the horizon quickly becomes blurred, it is not the sense of things to have perspective here,merely one image, one-dimensional,like her subject matter is some respects; yet placed with layers of hue, mists,nebuli and filigrees of time,durations and their ruins,we see decapying Greek columns,made of wood, with chipped paint, white of course,now deteriorating like those of an ancient time in the USA, but we know the time of here where we live, lost civilizations, or Persopolis.
Curious how you really cannot find these works beautiful unless you know something about history USA for that matter,and then their beauty is arresting for a moment;Mann's voice here speaks within a distance,like the faces of her children in her previous work, a voice once or twice removed, here a voice that has no resonance; or if you have followed the forms and shapes of the human spirit, you come to understand these photos. Mann has created a work that can stand alone in a void, they refer to a time, well no one today knows from real experience,perhaps Toni Morrison's "Beloved" has some resonance here but only from a great distance between her prose in parametrical time exposed as you read. Mann has found a way between representation and abstraction two of the paradigms of the 20th Century,the late Kirk Varnedoe had wanted to devote a study to this very subject, why the two have persisted throughout a century, or barely less than one. You also not only come to understand the South, but most places where such similar occurences have takened place. The American Civil War seems closer in a way, like these places are icons, yet not icons that form a critique with them,asking questions, there are no special spiritual places, here only where men have died, slaughtered along with mosquitoes and peaceful trees, Magnolias gently alive to witness the human condition.

Transcendent Images.......2005-11-22

Mann is one of the very most gifted photographers of our time. In her landscape work, she finds the perfect marriage of technique and subject matter--marrying the processes of 19th-century photography and historic lenses to the subject matter of great sites of the South, the profound and mysterious ways in which site carries memory. In doing so she has created images that seem to derive from our own memories, carrying the ghostly presences of the past, embodying something we hold in our minds while adding something distinctly new as well. Mann's are transcendent, glorious photographs that should be examined and appreciated by anyone with a discerning eye for great work from our own time.

Magnificent and complex.......2005-10-29

This is certainly Mann's best work. The landscapes seem destilled from both southern history as well as intimate and collective dreamworlds - both beautiful and intimidating. Look for a truly transcendental image that depicts a wooded landscape scarred by some kind of disaster. The image merges with the scarred emulsion of the glass plate to form a scull like shape that seems to expand into a fragment from and infinite outer space. An ambiguous, singular and extremely rewarding work of art.

Soul Food: Classic Cuisine from the Deep South

Average customer rating:

NO
SouLovely
great cookbook
Nothing to add to any recipe
If you love southern food, you need this cookbook

Soul Food: Classic Cuisine from the Deep South
Sheila Ferguson
Manufacturer: Grove Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0802132839

Book Description

“Soul food is just what the name implies. It is soulfully cooked food . . . good for your ever-loving soul . . . the shur-‘nuf kinda down-home cookin’ that I grew up on,” writes Sheila Ferguson. Abundant in flavor and variety—ranging from classics such as barbecued spare ribs, fried chicken, cornbread, and collard greens to less well known but equally sumptuous recipes such as sweet potato biscuits, grits soufflé, and wild fox grape wine—soul food is a truly American cuisine, originated in the deep South by slaves and later shaped and expanded by the rich diversity of African-American culture.

Customer Reviews:

NO.......2007-10-03

This book was full of food that if you eat on a regular will probable cause heart problems, high blood pressure and high colestoral. Let find a better way to eat black people.We are not slaves any more we have options.

SouLovely.......2007-07-20

A delightful book full of delicious recipes with clear instructions, family histories and a whole new vocabulary of odd expressions and descriptions of food. I also bought the more famous "Sylvia's Family Soul Food Cookbook" (Sylvia has a famous restaurant in New York), but I actually prefer this one slightly more, although both are absolutely wonderful. Sylvia's book is larger, more colourful and has more photos than this unassuming book by Sheila Ferguson, but the recipes for both books are just as mouth-watering; Sheila's book has a delicious recipe for "Red Devil's Food Cake" and Sylvia has a similar one called "Red Velvet Cake", for example. It's just that "Soul Food" by Ms. Ferguson has a few more unusual and unknown recipes in it, like her recipe for "Fergy's Fried Chicken". Most of the recipes look delicious and it all depends on the skill of the cook attempting these gems I guess, but I think both books are great references on this style of cooking and both are equally perfect. I would just be more likely to give Sylvia's cookbook as a gift because it is more elegant and I'd probably keep "Soul Food" for myself. No, come to think of it, I'd keep both.

great cookbook.......2007-05-06

I really enjoyed reading the stories along with some really great old southern recipes

Nothing to add to any recipe.......2006-09-13

The southern recipes are accurate to a fault. This is authentic soul food cuisine. I have found that sometimes I have had to reduce some of the richer ingredients for a "healthier" meal. This is the first cook book I have used that you can just follow the recipe and you do not have to add a thing. The flavoring is just right!

If you love southern food, you need this cookbook.......2006-03-30

I purchased this book years ago and recently misplaced it and just ordered another copy. I enjoy the recipes, the short stories... it's good reading and the recipes are very good. Brings back memories from the south.

Let Us Now Praise Famous Men: The American Classic, in Words and Photographs, of Three Tenant Families in the Deep South

Average customer rating:

If nothing else, certainly brilliant and thought-provoking
Topic great, writers not so great.
I thought I hated it at points, but I've never been able to get it out of my head.
A Classic
A Puzzle to be piece together....

Let Us Now Praise Famous Men: The American Classic, in Words and Photographs, of Three Tenant Families in the Deep South
James Agee , and Walker Evans
Manufacturer: Mariner Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Social History | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0618127496

Amazon.com

Just what kind of book is Let Us Now Praise Famous Men? It contains many things: poems; confessional reveries; disquisitions on the proper way to listen to Beethoven; snippets of dialogue, both real and imagined; a lengthy response to a survey from the Partisan Review; exhaustive catalogs of furniture, clothing, objects, and smells. And then there are Walker Evans's famously stark portraits of depression-era sharecroppers--photographs that both stand apart from and reinforce James Agee's words.

Assigned to do a story for Fortune magazine about sharecroppers in the Deep South, Agee and Evans spent four weeks living with a poor white tenant family, winning the Burroughs's trust and immersing themselves in a sharecropper's daily existence. Given a first draft of the resulting article, the editors at Fortune quite understandably threw up their hands--as did several other editors who subsequently worked with a later book-length manuscript. The writing was contrary. It refused to accommodate itself to the reader, and at times it positively bristled with hostility. (What other book could take Marx as the epigraph and then announce: "These words are quoted here to mislead those who will be misled by them"?) Response to the book was puzzled or unfriendly, and Let Us Now Praise Famous Men sputtered out of print only a few short years after its publication. It took the 1960s, and a vogue for social justice, to bring Agee's masterwork the audience it deserved.

Yet the book is far more interesting--aesthetically and morally--than the sort of guilty-liberal tract for which it is often mistaken. On an existential level, Agee's text is a deeply felt examination of what it means to suffer, to struggle to live in spite of suffering. On a personal level, it is the painful, beautifully written portrait of one man's obsession. In its collaboration with Evans's photographs, the book is also a groundbreaking experiment in form. In the end, however, it is more than merely the sum of its parts. Let Us Now Praise Famous Men is, quite simply, a book unlike any other, simmering with anger and beauty and mystery. --Mary Park

Book Description

In the summer of 1936, James Agee and Walker Evans set out on assignment for Fortune magazine to explore the daily lives of sharecroppers in the South. Their journey would prove an extraordinary collaboration and a watershed literary event when in 1941 LET US NOW PRAISE FAMOUS MEN was first published to enormous critical acclaim. This unsparing record of place, of the people who shaped the land, and of the rhythm of their lives was called intensely moving and unrelentingly honest, and is "renowned for its fusion of social conscience and artistic radicality" (New York Times). Today it stands as a poetic tract of its time, recognized by the New York Public Library as one of the most influential books of the twentieth century. With an elegant new design as well as a sixty-four-page photographic prologue of Evans's classic images, reproduced from archival negatives, this sixtieth anniversary edition reintroduces the legendary author and photographer to a new generation.

Customer Reviews:

If nothing else, certainly brilliant and thought-provoking.......2006-09-16

Let us Now Praise Famous Men, in all its poetry and prose, reminds me of an epic, like the Hindu Mahabharata or Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. The lyrical narrative reveals just as much, if not more about Agee, than his subjects. His writing style excludes his subjects as readers.

His prose, which tends to be lofty and cerebral, is also beautiful and brilliant. But, I often wondered, who he was
writing for? The New Yorker audience? The distance in his observations often left me feeling cold. I imagine these hardworking sharecroppers exhibiting some joy, some evidence of warmth, of hope. But I had difficulty finding it in Agee's voice.

The length of Agee's sentences and paragraphs were long, each containing an entire scene, and I labored through them, hoping sleep would not steal me from a passage I might not finish. It was as though Agee too, was afraid sleep would come and steal him from his mission, and so kept hacking away at each sentence, adding commas and colons and semi-colons, lingering his thoughts across the page.

Whatever level of consciousness Agee existed, I could not hang with him for any more than a couple of sentences, as I would fall off the page and have to find my way back into the scene. Where was I? You get the picture...

Agee also uses parenthesis and colons, often not giving his parenthesis a mate: (This struck me as rather unusual and often, cold and detached--more like a voyeur. Did he fabricate his own method of communication using punctuation or was this being done elsewhere at the time? I felt left out of his thoughts when he did this, like when two people are communicating via sign language and you can't make out a word they're saying. Was he doing this in a way to urge us to "think," to stretch beyond the ordinary conventions and try something on that is foreign and unfamiliar, like his subjects and their hardship?

Topic great, writers not so great........2006-05-27

The eloquence of composition surely necessitated infinite use of superlatives and verbs, resulting in a requisite painstaking remostrance to the reader, thus fettering the effusion and disembogulation of the document. In other words, wouldn't it have been better to just leave all of the fluff out of the book and just write as if the reader is someone other than the Queen of England? If you can weed through all of excessive use poems and verbs, it's a halfway decent book

I thought I hated it at points, but I've never been able to get it out of my head........2005-09-23

This book is an amazing work of art. At times it's baffling, and at times almost impertinent--like when the author decides to describe every object in an entire home, and yet in all these things and in all the conflicting emotions it evokes, it creates a mood and a feeling and a setting that will seep into your skin and fog your brain for months.
The writing is beautiful, the story it tells--of poor, sharecropping, depression-era families--is heartbreaking, and the experience of reading about it all is like a baptism by fire. This book just might re-wire your brain.
I think this is a much better read than Agee's "A Death in the Family," and that one won the Pulitzer Prize. Read this, for sure.
I read it on a bus trip across Guatemala, and the way Agee's descriptions of the old southern poverty fit the poor little towns full of Guatemalan coffee pickers was uncanny.
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, and let us start with James Agee.

UPDATE: It's years later, and this book has never stopped haunting me. I think of it almost daily. If I were to review it today, I would definitely give it Five Stars.

A Classic.......2005-08-05

Excellent editon of this wonderful, classic work. A series of visual and verbal snapshots of the South as a third world country, the South of the 1930's.

A Puzzle to be piece together...........2004-04-12

James Agee's book on the sharecroppers of the American south during the great depression is a book not to be taken lightly. I read this book for a college english class and I can honestly say that most people in the course including myself are confused by Agee's intent and purpose. Agee's highly lyrical and philosophical tone allows a deep analysis into the question of human existence in the depression south. Yet, the very scope and difficulty of his subject is expressed in his confused, perhaps confusing writing. There are lonely moments of insight stacked alongside pages of seemingly irrelevant and baseless speculation. I say seemingly because each time I re-read the passage I find that Agee's words have quite a bit more meaning than I had originally found. This book is not a novel, not journalism but a puzzle which Agee could not piece together. Only with time and care can the reader hope to understand the frustratingly complex yet real message of Agee's work.

Louisiana Gardener's Guide - Revised Edition

Average customer rating:

Great reference guide
One busy guy
The BEST book for the money

Louisiana Gardener's Guide - Revised Edition
Dan Gill , and Joe White
Manufacturer: Cool Springs Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Landscape | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 1930604866
Release Date: 2002-10-01

Book Description

Gardening is now the favorite outdoor leisure activity in America. More and more homeowners now realize the health benefits derived from gardening and the increase in their home's property value.

The trend in gardening books is to regional titles, because they provide credible information on the plants that perform well in specific regions. Gardeners want information they can use successfully in their own gardens.

The popular gardening team of Dan Gill and Dr. Joe White offers the Louisiana Gardener's Guide - Revised Edition. They recommend specific varieties well-suited for Louisiana and provide advice on how to plant, how to grow and how to care for the state's top-performing plants.

Customer Reviews:

Great reference guide.......2007-06-25

When we first moved to Louisiana, this book was invaluable for making sure that we selected the right plants for our garden. I still refer back to it every year when choosing new annuals.

One busy guy.......2006-10-15

I don't know how Dan does it. Between his weekly Times Picayune newspaper column, his weekly gardening segment on WWL-TV Morning Show, a two hour call in radio show every Saturday and constant appearances at seminars, garden shows, I'm surprised Dan could find time to write a book. And a great book it is. If you garden in Louisiana or if you want to garden in Louisiana, you need this book. Hundreds of plants are spotlighted; what conditions they like, where to plant, sun needs and shade wants. Does the plant like wet feet, will it withstand a freeze? With pictures on most every page and comprehensive information on Louisiana plants, this book is an invaluable resource for beginners and reference for professionals.

The BEST book for the money.......2005-06-14

After buying our first home, my husband and I split the duties. Mine, of course, was the garden.

Since in the past everything I have touched has died due to forgetfulness to water, I was determined to have a garden with blooming flowers and shrubs. Since beginning on my own, I recently purchased 3 books through Amazon. After getting them and reading through them the past day or so, this is by far the best of them all.

This book has a picture on almost every page and a great description and legend for the plants, trees, shrubs and flowers it lists. Not every type is in here, but it is the most comprehensive and diverse book I have come across so far. The legend shows sun amounts, what insects are attracted to it (perfect if you don't like bees), which ones are best for cut arrangements and if it has fragrance.

I would recommend buying this book before all others. I have already went back to it many times in the short time I have had it. The other 2 books? I might try to sell them on Amazon to someone else because they were not much help.

Drilling Ahead: The Quest for Oil in the Deep South, 1945-2005

Average customer rating:

Drilling Ahead: The Quest for Oil in the Deep South, 1945-2005
Alan Cockrell
Manufacturer: University Press of Mississippi
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Company Profiles | Biography & History | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Oil & Energy | Industries & Professions | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Business & Investing | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Professional | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
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ASIN: 1578068118

Book Description

The discovery of oil in Tinsley, Mississippi, in 1939 captivated the South and has deeply affected the region ever since. At the end of 1940, over 133 wells were flowing and pumping crude oil, and speculators were drilling holes and staking claims all along the Gulf Coast and its immediate environs. Consequently, the region's economy, ecosystems, and politics have been shaped by black gold since the end of World War II.

Drilling Ahead: The Quest for Oil in the Deep South, 1945-2004 is a history of the petroleum industry in the region from that time to the present. Alan Cockrell, a petroleum geologist, provides an insider's account of the science of oil hunting, the political processes that help or hinder it, and the advances in technology that make it all possible. This book documents the ways in which wars, foreign competition, governmental regulation, and new business models affect oil exploration, and what that means to the South's people.

Just as significantly, Cockrell provides compelling commentary on the people who hunt for petroleum. From pioneering wildcatters such as Chesley Pruet to savvy geologists focusing on science and technology, Drilling Ahead documents the triumphs and travails of oil hunters. Petroleum speculation attracts all kinds-mavericks, underworld characters, professors, lawyers, and environmentalists have all played major roles in the South's oil production.

Amazon.com

After her urban adventures on New York's Ellis Island in Liberty Falling, park ranger Anna Pigeon has finally "heeded the ticking of her bureaucratic clock" and signed on for a promotion in the boonies: district ranger on the Natchez Trace Parkway. Anna's mental images of Mississippi come from black-and-white stock photos from the civil rights movement of the 1960s, so it's not surprising that she finds it beautiful but strange, its residents caught in a teased-hair, fried-food time warp. But she's got more than an unhealthy diet to worry about--as the first female district ranger on the Trace, she immediately encounters more than a few good ol' boys and local miscreants who resent her authority, especially after a 17-year-old beauty is murdered on a booze-soaked prom night near the Trace, her head covered with a KKK-style sheet.

There are plenty of reasons her friends and family might have wanted Danielle Posey dead, ranging from her $40,000 insurance policy to jealousy to flat-out insanity. Anna wonders whether the sheet's a red herring, but she can't dismiss it entirely. Though the local culture's no longer built around segregation, racism still exists at a deep level that Anna finds unsettling. Both Danielle Posey and the prime suspect--her boyfriend--are white, but Danielle had secrets her friends won't reveal. Still, no one else appears to be in danger, until a prankster--or could it be a murderer?--sets an alligator loose in Anna's garage (nearly killing her faithful black Lab, Taco) and a local preacher commits suicide.

With the help of the handsome local sheriff, Paul Davidson, Anna pulls together clues from local history, Civil War reenactors, and the Mississippi mud and kudzu. Anna Pigeon's one tough bird--she survives not only a little alligator wrestling but also a brutal attack that leads her to the truth of what happened to Danielle Posey and why. What's most fascinating is how much of her famous emotional shield she lets slip in the process. --Barrie Trinkle

Book Description

Park Ranger Anna Pigeon stumbles upon a gruesome murder with frightening racial overtones in the latest installment of the bestselling series.

"What lifts the Anna Pigeon novels far above most of the other contemporary amateur sleuth mysteries is Barr's exquisite writing--it swoops, it soars, sails then catches you unawares beneath the heart and takes your breath away," proclaimed the Cleveland Plain Dealer of last year's Liberty Falling. In Deep South, Nevada Barr takes our breath away once again as her heroine travels cross-country to Mississippi, only to encounter terrible secrets in the heart of the south.

The handwritten sign on the tree said it all: REPENT. For Anna Pigeon, this should have been reason enough to turn back for her beloved Mesa Verde. Instead she heads for the Natchez Trace Parkway and the promotion that awaits her. Almost immediately, she finds herself in the midst of controversy: as the new district ranger, she faces resentment so extreme her ability to do her job may be compromised, and her life may very well be in danger. But all thoughts of personal safety are set aside with the discovery of a young girl's body in a country cemetery, a sheet around her head, a noose around her neck.

The kudzu is thick and green, the woods dark and full of secrets. And the ghosts of violence hover as Anna struggles for answers to questions that, perhaps, should never be asked. Deep South proves that, "like the parks and monuments she writes of, Nevada Barr should be declared a national treasure" (The Bloomsbury Review).

Customer Reviews:

Ending was a let down.......2006-08-15

This was my second Nevada Barr book - the first I read was Hidden Truth, which I found entertaining and well written. I enjoyed this book up until the last 50 pages or so. I got the feeling that the writer was struggling with a suitable/plausible ending to an otherwise enjoyable story. It dragged on a bit and the final who-done-it & more so - why - felt weak and far fetched for such a big story.

I did enjoy the info and data on the NPS, racism and sexism in the south, and the strength of the character. But perhaps the end could have included more info about topics such as did the people behind the alligator incident ever get prosecuted?

Who Is The Instigator? Who Will End It!.......2006-08-10

She started the story and based it across the border in the beautiful country of North Carolina. She must have seen the Phoenix here and decided to turn it into an exclusive spa. With the help of a few friends, her hard labor proved to be dynamite. The Phonenix, contrary to the one located on Gay Street, is an upscale spa for the rich and famous. The scene of five murders, this time the characters are all interrelated, which is uncovered in the final chapter. It was all rather convoluted, being the artistic endeavors of thirteen prominent writers, each for one chapter. This is the result of a project to copy the serial novels of the Thirties in which Agatha Cristie was involved. In 'Agatha,' the movie, she was incognito "shadowing" her nemesis in a steam room in England about the same time she was writing such (living a dream). Our Phoenix building downtown has been renovated into high priced condos for strange folks who moved here and think it is novel to live on the main street of this town. No Spa there, however, you have to go to Powell to the Fitness Center to find the hot tub and steam room.

The Phoenix in this story in segments is a place of myster with drugs, adoptions, murders all involved until the Chapter 13 which explains all in detail to the survivors who are all family, interrelated in a weird way. "A family, rising phoenixlike from the ashes." Caroline thanked God for bringint this man into her life; Tennessee congressman Doug Blessing with some secrets of his own. She hadd not "forced her way to freedom" because of an anticipated "need for Doug's more delicate plumbing." This written by a mystery writer as opposed to a romance novelist who would be more explicit. Just a slightly different way of phrasing, which I always used in the book reviews I gave to the literary club -- it was fun to confuse those who weren't napping. The Phoenix had a mud room with its own secret stash.

Some of the gathering of strong personalities include the beautiful made model (Adonis), the kinky actress, the green-haired rock star who went through N.A., the detective Toscana who sometimes acted like God ("and Toscana saw that it was good."), Dante, t he masseur, and Geoff, the assitant pastry chef. The sociopathic personality responsible for the deaths had no conscience, and was evil with no sense of honor. Knowledge was her weapon. A person can only ask, to be granted a wish for anything.

Led by Nevada Barr based this confusing story showing how a character can be killed in a spa. I review another book wherin the pivotal chatacter was killed in the steam room of the notel spa shortly before his scheduled assignation with the main person. So, this premise is nothing new, nor the format. What is different is t he freedom of each of these authors to develop their own characters and circumstances leading to the next sequence of unusual, never-thought-of-before things a client could do at this exclusive Phoenix Spa. This serial format started in 1931 with 'The Floating Admiral' which was serialized in England. Marcia Talley, editor, discovers a link with that first collaboration and declared, "We have now come full circle."

Deep South .......2006-01-09

This is my first adventure with Nevada Barr and I can't put it down. Highly recommend it to a good mystery lover.

reasonably good detective fiction with great scenery descriptions.......2005-10-31

I have read half a dozen of the Anna Pigeon books in the past year or so. I find that Barr's greatest talent is description of the places where the books take place and, presumably where she has worked. Last year, a few weeks after I had the pleasure of my first visit to Mesa Verde in more than 30 years, I read the book set in that park. It was like being back. I kept thinking "yeah, I was at that place" and "yeah, it really is that spectacular".

However, I am reviewing this book which is set on the Natchez Trace. I had never thought of northern Mississippi as exactly scenic, although my parents used to make a point of driving the Trace as often as they could on their way from Texas to visit us in Tennessee. In this book, Barr's description of the beauty of a velvet spring night on the Trace is beautiful. Downright lyrical. My hat's off to the lady for that bit of writing.

Aside from Barr's ability to evoke the beauty of a place and make me think I might want to go there, I think her skills as a mystery writer are just fair to middling. I must admit that she is good at not telegraphing the identity of the villain. However, I am getting tired of the "Perils of Pauline" act. Her formula seems to be to almost get her character killed shortly after the beginning of the book. This is usually before the character figures out that something bad may be going on. Then, near the end, she does it again. More often than not, the second near death experience is due to some incredible stupidity on Anna's part. A real police officer who was that careless that often in dangerous situations would long since be dead. Such, of course, is fiction. Mark Twain was quoted as saying something like "Truth is stranger than fiction because fiction has to make sense." Well, not always. If you let the law of averages catch up with your main character, then you have to either invent a new character or stop writing.

Some of the political correctness is getting old. In every second or third book, she creates a lesbian character or two who are candidates for sainthood. Of course, this is customary for homosexual characters, male and female, in other parts of the entertainment media including Hollywood. All that sweetness and light makes me yearn for the character Sharon Stone played in "Basic Instinct". Speaking of sweetness and light, the only female character I have so far seen who is up to her ears in the evil and the murder is in Barr's recent book set in Yosemite. In the rest of those of her books that I have read, the bad guys are exactly that -- guys. No Lady Macbeths here.

All in all, the Anna Pigeon books are a pretty good read, especially the parts about the scenery, and contain enough meat to keep me occupied. I just picked up a paperback at the used book store that I think is set in Carlsbad Caverns. It will help to while away the flying hours on my next business trip. I loved Carlsbad. However, the idea of getting off the beaten path, crawling through narrow cracks, and maybe getting trapped gives me the creeps. Claustrophobia city.

One of the better books in the Anna Pigeon series.......2005-09-13

"Deep South" and "Hunting Season" are both set in Natchez Trace National Parkway. This is one of those units of the National Park system that nobody ever thinks of, but it takes up a 450-miles stretch from southwestern border of Mississippi through the northeastern border and up to Nashville. Because it's a strip of parkway, it is far more a part of the community than many other national parks.

As a result, the fact that Anna is a "ranger" in a "national park" seems beside the point in this book. She is a Yankee law enforcement officer who finds herself in an unfamiliar world. Some of this world consists of Yankee stereotypes of the South: good old boys, racists, pickup trucks and football. Other characters emerge as real people.

Anna arrived in this park with a promotion to management. Her introduction to management is a nightmare; one of her two rangers is a real nightmare, a lazy, sexist, hostile, lawsuit-prone loser. His forms of resistance are so well drawn that they must be based on some people in Nevada Barr's own past as a ranger.

The murder victim is a high school student on prom night. As a result, much of the plot involves talking to the victim's friends. Ranger Pigeon, like Nevada Barr, has no kids. The world of high school is therefore mystifying to Ranger Pigeon - and to Nevada Barr. As a result, some parts of the school world are not drawn very convincingly.

The ending of this book left me cold, with a number of loose ends summarized very drily. It reminded me of those movies with text at the end saying things like, "Joe ended up as a real estate agent in Wichita, while Mary went back to college in Texas." Stretching this out a little would have left me with a more satisfied feeling at the end.

That said, this is a good entry in the Anna Pigeon series, even one of the better ones. If you have enjoyed any of the other books in the series, you certainly want to read this one.

My Soul Is Rested: Movement Days in the Deep South Remembered

Average customer rating:

More good stories
A book about the REAL heroes/heroines of Civil Rights
One of the best books about the Civil Rights Wars!
Extraordinary account of an extraordinary time.
An empowering book to read!

My Soul Is Rested: Movement Days in the Deep South Remembered
Howell Raines
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Humor | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

Civil Rights & Liberties | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Human Rights | Constitutional Law | Law | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0140067531

Customer Reviews:

More good stories.......2007-08-02

One of the best first hand accounts of the civil rights movement I have read. There were things in this book you will not find in the history books. A must read

A book about the REAL heroes/heroines of Civil Rights.......2003-04-11

A wonderful piece of work, Raines merely interviews the people from the wide and varied perspectives of the movement and gives them free rein to tell "their story" "their way" managing within this framework to lace a compelling and interesting plot around some states and some history that time and justice seemed to have forgotten.

Seven years Raines' junior, I grew up white and a carpetbagger (from the North. . .)in Augusta, GA and I now have context for stories I was told. One among many, I knew the Hamilton Holmes' car story told by the KA frat guys when they were adults, still bragging but also, "they didn't really mean it."

I am still quite mystified how a Birmin'ham boy, bragging that his Alabama ancestors fought for the Union, lived to tell about it.

I highly recommend "Fly Fishing . . ." as well. IT's NOT ABOUT THE FISH. Great read.

He thought it was tough being the baby brother; I can only suggest that he try getting fishing privileges as the Irish twin younger sister.

One of the best books about the Civil Rights Wars!.......2002-03-30

This book is on the list of 100 best or most influential books I've ever read--mainly because it is observant, honest, humble and direct, with no political agendas and no effete overtones. This is a title well worth re-examining some 20 years after publication. It can be browzed through at random, with something startling jumping at you on virtually every page. Or, it can be read straight through. It's quite a white-knuckle event. Many books have been written on the subject, but there's something quietly compelling about this one. Raines is one of our great journalists. This is a good way to become acquainted with him, in the days before he became elevated to one of the most prestigious newspaper jobs in the world.

--Jim Reed, author, DAD'S TWEED COAT: SMALL WISDOMS HIDDEN COMFORTS UNEXPECTED JOYS jimreedbooks.com

Extraordinary account of an extraordinary time........2001-09-02

Howell Raines is the new executive editor for "The New York Times," but he is at heart a writer. Both strengths come to the fore in this excellent book on the American civil rights movement. As an oral history, it necessarily contains first-hand accounts of dozens and dozens of the main (and not-so-important) players in the movement. Raines does a fine and fair job of putting their stories into essentially chronological order and editing or moving bits and pieces only where necessary to ensure good flow for the reader. There were a few names I had heard of before, but many were new to me. There are surprises in this book. While we mostly associate the civil rights movement with the deep south in the mid-1960s, it actually got its start in Chicago in the 1940s when groups of people protested with the first lunch-counter sit-ins (when a manager came out to scold one of these groups with the flat, "We don't serve colored folks here," one quick-witted participant fired back, "That's OK, we don't eat 'em!"). Another revelation was the tensions between the older blacks and the younger black student generation. The older blacks, while not happy with segregation, sometimes felt that at least everyone knew where they stood with it--while the younger generation was champing at the bit to get out there and change the world overnight. Finally, it was interesting to read that many of the original founders of the movement were inspired far more by Gandhi than by Martin Luther King, Jr. A number of them express their opinion that King--while undoubtedly important and absolutely essential once the movement got underway--was not himself so convinced as to the value of a) the movement itself and b) non-violent protest--many of this friends and co-workers say here that he continued to espouse it only because eventually, he felt he had been thoroughly and unmistakeably identified with it. Although I was surprised that neither Coretta Scott King nor the Reverend Jesse Jackson were inteviewed for Mr. Raines' book, their absence is my only quibble with what is otherwise an enormously valuable and terrifically readable history.

An empowering book to read!.......2001-05-06

It was difficult to stop reading the book, once I started. This collection of interviews with the idealists, the activists, the real "fighters" in the civil rights movement in the 50s and 60s -- and the people who stood against them -- is an empowering, educational read. Truly, this book is a must for those interested in learning more about the civil rights struggle (a struggle that continues until today), and about movements for peace and social justice in general.

Average customer rating:

A WONDERFUL RECIPE BOOK
GREAT
Good home cooking!!!!!!
WASTE OF MONEY
Good Southern Recipes

Meet Me at the Loveless
Cool Springs Press
Manufacturer: Cool Springs Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Baking | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

History | Gastronomy | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

General | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 1888608374
Release Date: 2001-07-03

Customer Reviews:

A WONDERFUL RECIPE BOOK.......2000-02-12

ITS A SHAME SHE DIDNT PUT THE RECIPE FOR THE BISCUITS, BUT THAT RECIPE HAS BEEN A SECRET FOR AGES AND WAS A KEY SELLING POINT WHEN DONNA BOUGHT THE LOVELESS. THERE ARE PLENTY OF MOUTH WATERING RECIPES DONNA AND MAMMIE HAVE COMPILED AND I RECOMMEND THIS BOOK TO ANYONE AND EVERYONE

ITS COUNTRY COOKING AT IT'S FINEST!

GREAT.......1999-02-02

This is a wonderful Southern cookbook but also a great history of the Loveless. I enjoyed reading the sidelines as much as looking at the recipes. I also noted it was co-written by twins, Donna McCabe and her sister Mamie Strowd. My copy was signed by both of them!!

Good home cooking!!!!!!.......1999-01-26

This cookbook shares many great southern recipes and is a must for all cooks but a great starter for the newlyweds. We all loved it/

WASTE OF MONEY.......1999-01-01

What is a Southern cookbook without recipes for fried chicken, country ham, and especially, the scratch biscuits that made the Loveless Cafe famous?

Good Southern Recipes.......1998-12-14

The book contains many good recipes as well as interesting information about the restaurant.

Average customer rating:

Great book!
Thank You, Boys: A Salute to the Saints
An awesome tribute for New Orleans Saints Fans

Thank You, Boys: A Salute to the Saints

Manufacturer: Times-Picayune
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Football (American) | Sports | Subjects | Books

Professional | Football (American) | Sports | Subjects | Books

General | Sports | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 1596702753

Book Description

New Orleans football fans can continue the celebration of their team's incredible and inspiring season in this dazzling full-color book. The book takes an in-depth look at the Saints? amazing 2006 campaign, while recapping their first-ever trip to the NFC Championship Game, through stories and photos first found in the pages of The Times- Picayune, New Orleans? award-winning daily newspaper. Thank You, Boys is full of exciting full-color photos, taking fans through the great moments of the Saints? remarkable season when they seemingly lifted the spirits of a city still struggling to heal after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Included are game recaps from The Times-Picayune, as well as statistics and complete coverage of the playoff victory over the Philadelphia Eagles in front of a boisterous Superdome crowd. Fantastic player profiles are included that feature the Saints? biggest star performers, including quarterback Drew Brees and running back Reggie Bush.

Customer Reviews:

Great book!.......2007-08-27

This is a great book that depicts the entire 2006 New Orleans Saints football season. The pictures are wonderful and the story was written very well. I bought it as a birthday present for my husband and he LOVED it.

Thank You, Boys: A Salute to the Saints.......2007-05-14

Excellent book. Great item to remember the Saints amazing 2006 season for years and years to come. I look forward to next year's book about the Saints Super Bowl Championship.

An awesome tribute for New Orleans Saints Fans.......2007-02-26

This book was awesome!!!! I have been a Saints fan for many years, through the good and the bad. The 2006 season was awesome. This book is a great recap of a wonderful season for the New Orleans Saints. It has a week by week analysis of each game of the 2006 season. This is a great gift for a New Orleans Saints fan.

Geaux Saints!!!!!

Average customer rating:

A compelling and important story
Outstanding Reading!
Phenomenal characters!
Held me spellbound......
Culture, Race, and Sex

Isle of Canes (paperback)
Elizabeth Shown Mills
Manufacturer: Ancestry Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 1593313063
Release Date: 2006-09-20

Product Description

Isle of Canes is the epic account of a multi-racial family in Louisiana that, over four generations and more than 150 years, rose from the chains of slavery to rule the Isle of Canes. Historically accurate and genealogically significant, this first novel by eminent genealogist Elizabeth Shown Mills is a gripping tale of racial conflict, economic ruin, and family pride told against the backdrop of colonial and antebellum Louisiana. This novel is the result of more than thirty years of research. To fuel the story, as well as to maintain historical accuracy, the author found and referenced actual family history documents such as baptism records, manumission papers, probate records, land records, book extracts, and more to reconstruct the lives and times of Francois, Fanny, Coincoin, Augustin, and countless other unforgettable characters. But it takes more than documents on paper and microfilm to bring such an epic story to life. Mills s engaging prose puts flesh on the bones and pulls you into the lives and lifestyle of long-ago Louisiana.

Customer Reviews:

A compelling and important story.......2004-12-26

A magnificent work. Mills, America's preeminent genealogist, has evolved into a passionate and successful writer of historical fiction. The Isle of Canes deals with the little told story of the Creoles of Louisiana. Mills shares the story of a family, the Metoyers, people of color, as successive generations live and prosper in the unique environment of Spanish and French Louisiana. We see and feel the changes in their lives as the impact of the Civil War comes to the Isle. The story richly weaves the tensions of slavery, multiracial families, and economic upheaval in the antebellum South. This novel is of enduring importance, and will come to be part of the classic literature describing Southern history. If you enjoy a compelling, and entertaining story, based on real families and events, and if you like to be more than entertained i.e. learn something about our history, you will thoroughly enjoy this novel.

Outstanding Reading!.......2004-11-09

I highly recommend this book to those who have any interest in genealogy, history or just enjoy reading the saga of a family. Excellent reading. Very enjoyable. Difficult to put down.

Phenomenal characters!.......2004-08-13

What an incredible story! The four generations in Isle of Canes have touched me in a way I can't forget. Mills has a true gift for creating characters whose skin you can crawl right into and feel their pain and joy.

Held me spellbound.............2004-08-09

Isle of Canes has been called a cross between Gone with the Wind and
Roots. It's a grand epic to rival both, but it goes far beyond GWTW's
moonlight-and-magnolia image of the South and it explores complexities of
slave life that Roots' ignored. The sexual tension of Isle is more akin to
Monticello's Thomas and Sally than to Tara's Scarlett and Rhett, and the
masters who occupy the "big house" were once slaves themselves. Mills
explores raw and painful sides of America's past, but she has done it with
a grace and style and rhythm and emotion that held me spellbound.

Culture, Race, and Sex.......2004-07-29

Behind its idyllic façade, Isle of Canes is a frank and gripping look at issues America has preferred not to deal with-particularly the world of slaveownership by those who once were slaves themselves, its motivation (some would say, necessity), and the conflicts of conscience that lifestyle created. A major underlying theme is the world of sexual servitude, which Isle explores in multiple ways, some of which turn stereotypes on its head. Both issues are presented on a stage history has ignored: the cultural conflict of Creole (French and Spanish Catholic) America versus Anglo-Protestant America in the colonial and antebellum South. Mills brilliantly shows the consequences of the white Creole vs. Anglo conflict upon America's racial history.

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