Amazon.com
When Larry Brown died suddenly in 2004 at 53, he left a nearly finished sixth novel, A Miracle of Catfish, that revisits several of his favorite themes: fatherhood, alienation, and loneliness. Shannon Ravenel, Brown's Algonquin editor, had the daunting task of trimming the enormous manuscript to manageable size, almost impossible for a responsible editor to do without the help of the author. Brown's prolix, rambling style is at times mesmerizing and at times--just rambling. Brown's notes at the end show us where the story might have gone, but it does not suffer for being unfinished. Larry Brown definitely knew where he was taking his reader, and Ravenel helped him along.
Consideration of the fatherhood theme centers around a man known only as "Jimmy's Daddy," an unregenerate, wretched human being and an ignorant, violent drunkard. His preoccupations, view of women, and treatment of Jimmy might be seen as caricatures if we didn't know that such people actually exist. Another father, with a much more interesting story, is Cortez Sharp, a farmer in the low hills near Oxford, Mississippi, for nearly fifty years. He has a daughter, Lucinda, living "with a retard" in Atlanta. The man is a layabout artist who suffers from Tourette's Syndrome, which makes Cortez think that he is simply retarded. Cortez has a deep, dark, guilty secret which is eventually revealed, but the two things that we know about him from the beginning are that he is terribly lonely and is stocking a pond he just had dug with catfish--thousands of catfish. Two minor players are Cleve, a muderous black man who is an occasional employee of Cortez's and Tommy, who delivers fish to stock Cortez's pond and owns Ursula, the Mother of all Catfish. Jimmy is the hapless nine-year-old who suffers at the hands of his daddy, and comes to the attention of Cortez who tells him--initially--to get off his property. All of these lives intersect in unexpected ways and are changed by the encounters. Brown writes hell-bent-for-leather in a style uniquely his own which carries the reader along, into landscapes interior and exterior. --Valerie Ryan
Book Description
Larry Brown has been a force in American literature since taking critics by storm with his debut collection,
Facing the Music, in 1988. His subsequent work—five novels, another story collection, and two books of nonfiction—continued to bring extraordinary praise and national attention to the writer
New York Newsday called a "master."
In November 2004, Brown sent the nearly completed manuscript of his sixth novel to his literary agent. A week later, he died of a massive heart attack. He was fifty-three years old.
A Miracle of Catfish is that novel. Brown's trademarks—his raw detail, pared-down prose, and characters under siege—are all here.
This beautiful, heartbreaking anthem to the writer's own North Mississippi land and the hard-working, hard-loving, hard-losing men it spawns is the story of one year in the lives of five characters—an old farmer with a new pond he wants stocked with baby catfish; a bankrupt fish pond stocker who secretly releases his forty-pound brood catfish into the farmer's pond; a little boy from the trailer home across the road who inadvertently hooks the behemoth catfish; the boy's inept father; and a former convict down the road who kills a second time to save his daughter.
That Larry Brown died so young, and before he could see
A Miracle of Catfish published, is a tragedy. That he had time to enrich the legacy of his work with this remarkable book is a blessing.
Customer Reviews:
Larry Brown's last miraculous novel.......2007-09-05
Another reason to mourn Larry Brown's untimely death is the fact that we will never know just how the lives of the people he created in his final masterpiece would have turned out. Would Cortez have become the father little Bobby deserves, replacing the hapless and clueless daddy who can think of no one but himself? Would we ever know any more about the fish man? Perhaps we already know enough about all the living, breathing, all-too-real characters Larry imagined for us by the time we come to the page where we are left wanting to know more about them and about the others living in his imagination, waiting for future books that won't be written. It's a rare talent who can keep us interested in and even hopeful about the fates of some pretty unlikeable and apparently unredeemable people. Bobby, Bobby's daddy, and Cortez are among Larry Brown's finest creations.
The last hurrah of talented writer Larry Brown.......2007-08-24
'A Miracle Of Catfish' was unfinished when author Larry Brown died unexpectedly. Because the book was almost finished, publication of Brown's last offering to his fans was possible. The book uses ellipsis to show where editing was done, and though unfinished, includes the notes that Brown left behind as to how he planned to wrap up the novel.
In Brown's languid southern prose, he explores the lives of several people living in the quiet, countrified outskirts of a small town. Cortez Sharp, a 72 year old man who's wife is disabled, decides to dig out a large pond on his property and stock it with catfish. He lives a solitary life, preferring to be left alone with his vegetable patches and herds of cows. His daughter Lucinda lives in Atlanta with her boyfriend Albert, who suffers from Tourettes Syndrome. Cortez calls Albert 'The Retard', driving a wedge between him and his only surviving child. Cortez carries a dark secret with him, one of horrible proportions.
There's Jimmy, a ten year old boy with bad teeth, who lives near Cortez's farm in an old trailer. Jimmy struggles with his father's temper, his two half-sisters Evelyn and Velma, and his desire to fix the go-kart his daddy built for him. Jimmy's Daddy (known only in the book as 'Jimmy's Daddy') is a typical redneck loser. He drives around in his old '55 drinking beer and smoking cigarettes, fights with himself over trying to treat Jimmy better, and has an affair with a woman at the stove factory where he works that turns out bad (in pregnancy) which threatens his life and marriage to Jonette.
And then there's Cleve, an old black man who used to work for Cortez, mean as a polecat, and murderous to boot. He's been in prison twice and though he swore he'd never go back, he's not quite done committing crimes.
Typical of Brown's unhurried and languorous prose, there's lots of smoking, beer drinking, and driving around. There's surprises like DUI's, tractor accidents, unwanted pregnancies, affairs, fishing, hunting, and a young boy worried about having puppies.
These aren't exactly people you would want for neighbors, but Brown brings them out fully fleshed and alive, and you know there are people out there just like Brown's characters. Everyday folk struggling with everyday problems, inner monologues that both repulse and enchant, and scenes that will suck you into the story despite their slowly building climaxes.
While I highly recommend Brown's work, I would recommend 'Joe', 'Fay', and 'Father And Son' as a warm up to 'A Miracle Of Catfish', simply because this is an unfinished work and may leave the novice Brown reader feeling flat at the abrupt end. It's sad that this is the last time we will hear Brown's voice in the literature world. Enjoy!
Unfinished but pleasing anyway.......2007-07-10
I have the same feeling reading Larry Brown as I do reading Faulkner: He's writing about us! And this latest is the same as the others of his; he has the weather, the land, the people, the animals and all down pat. It's like it is down here. He's just chosen a few characters to show a representation but he uses them to give insight into the universal truths as Faulkner says. It's a shame he wasn't able to finish the book but it's wonderful that his wife and publisher went ahead with what's there. And most of it is there.
I was in the Oxford Hospital getting a stent put in and finally going home after a week of tests and procedures when I read that he'd died suddenly of a heart attack. I always wanted to meet him as I thought we had so much in common. A couple of years before I thought I saw him leaving Square Books as we were going in- my brother from North Carolina who always wants to got to Square Books and my wife and our daughter who lives in Oxford. He had on a gray raincoat or light overcoat and he smiled at us when he saw us getting out of the car and heading into the bookstore. What a loss.
Beverly Lowry of George Mason University has written a fine review in the April 27, 2007, New York Times Book Review and I'm sure there are others. Read this book and you'll want to go back and read his others too.
Dewitt Spencer
You simply MUST READ this book! Such a masterpiece!!!.......2007-07-07
I was devastated when I heard that Larry Brown had passed away. What a loss to his friends and family, and what a loss to his fans. This man could spin a tale, write a story, take you away, pull you in. Such a loss - God bless him!
I have read EVERY book that Mr. Brown ever wrote -- FAY, JOE, FATHER AND SON, etc. When I saw A MIRACLE OF CATFISH on the new book shelf at my library, I almost fell over! Knowing Mr. Brown has passed, I was shocked and happy to see this book there -- all 454 pages of it.
Let me tell you, at first I didn't think I was going to be able to get into this book. Which I found very puzzling! So, I sat down and really READ and by page five I was HOOKED!! I will think of this book for years to come!!! It is just THAT GOOD.
The characters in this book are sooo life-like and believeable. There are not many people in this novel, but you don't need many. Each chapter revolves around one character and their life; however, they are all inter-twined and make the book was it is ~~ EXCELLENT.
The main characters are Cortez Sharp, who farms and raises cattle. His wife is ill and his grown child lives in Atlanta. He is older and very lonely. He decides to build a pond and stock it with catfish. When the author describes the tomato sandwiches Cortez makes, yum, hook me up with one!
Another main character is Jimmy, a young boy who lives with his white trash family down the road from Cortez. He is a lonely little guy whose step-sisters treat him like crap. His mom, Johnette {gotta love the names!}, works, eats, and sleeps (around!!) and doesn't pay her children too much attention. Hence, Jimmy is looking for attention, affection, interest, and love. He wanders down by the new pond only to get kicked off the property by Cortez Sharp, which is how these two main characters meet.
My favorite main character was Jimmy's dad who is only referred to as Jimmy's daddy. Such a loser! Such a womanizer! Such a sorry excuse for a father! Always thinking of himself, always looking out for himself. Loves his old '55 car more than his family. But all of these bad traits make him the great character he is. You have to give Jimmy's daddy credit -- he does try, he does love his family; however, if something bad is going to happen it happens to Jimmy's daddy. He never quite makes things work right for himself or his family.
Cortez Sharp decides to have a pond dug and filled with catfish. He doesn't know how having this pond will affect not only him, but Jimmy down the road. The book takes us on a journey that involves all of the above mentioned characters and simply their lives -- at work, school, their friends, family, their affairs, and the deep dark secret that Cortez Sharp lives with daily.
Sound boring? It is NOT. I found I could not turn the pages fast enough. The way the story is told and how life in the South is related just takes you right to the banks of that pond with a fishing pole in hand and trouble on the way. Life in this small southern town is one hell of a ride. Get this book and enjoy it.
You must get this book and read it. There are other not so main characters that add spice to the book. The writing is stupendous -- you can feel the heat, see Cortez taking care of cattle and riding his tractor, see the dirty, nasty living conditions at Jimmy's trailer, see the dirt and grease on Jimmy's daddy's hands, feel the hurt in Jimmy's nasty teeth, see the trashy way Jimmy's sisters and Mom dress. Mr. Brown had a talent and gift that will be sorely missed. I find I am having a problem finding my next "read" as nothing seems to compare to this wonderful book.
Take my advice and the advice of the other reviewers -- get this book, read it, and then get the rest of Mr. Brown's works and just enjoy. Every book he has written is simply a treasure! A MIRACLE OF CATFISH ~~ a miracle in itself!!!!!!!!
Thank you!!!
Pam
Dadgummit Larry, why'd you have to leave...........2007-06-12
Larry taught himself how to write and his stories improved exponentially to the end. If you are a fan, look for Larry Brown in the Blue Moon Cafe line; one of them has a strange, but awesome short-story in it.
As I neared the last few pages of the book I was anxious as to what point it might end, or if it would end before he passed away. I wasn't sure. Undeniable sadness filled me too, because Miracle was his best, and I knew it was his last.
While he didn't finish the book with in a cathartic end, his heart, I suppose, was driving it towards something good. Likely Jimmy's daddy would "get his" and Jimmy would end up happy. Who knows, but it is how it was flavored.
But it ended. The chapter just ended and his notes wrapped it up-- questions remained over things from Jimmy's daddy, to Queen and Ursula. But all in all, the end cut short is in a way a fitting epitaph for a great writer's life cut short like Willie Morris. No doubt the two are now side by side at the great catfish pond in the sky.
Lord knows how many times we might have brushed shoulders at The Beacon, or Smitty's, or Sneeds...God, I wish I'd actually known him during my years in Oxford.
Book Description
Miss Julia—that Southern spitfire of a certain age who is never less than charming, even when she's at her most opinionated—has been praised by Fannie Flagg as “one of the most delightful characters to come along in years.” In Miss Julia Hits the Road, she is becoming increasingly concerned about her gentleman friend, Sam, who has suddenly started wearing cowboy boots, sending her flowers, and writing bad poetry. And when he shows up on a Harley-Davidson Road King and asks her to hop on, she's convinced he's lost his mind. Meanwhile, her invaluable housekeeper, Lillian, has been evicted from her home by her greedy landlord. Deciding that Lillian's need is greater than her own fear (not to mention loss of dignity), Miss Julia takes Sam up on his offer and sets off on a motorcycle Poker Run to raise some fast cash. She's ready to risk life and limb in Sam's sidecar to save Lillian's home from the bulldozer, but will Miss Julia's scheme work?
Customer Reviews:
Hackneyed tripe.......2007-05-15
Although Miss Julia is not bigoted, her creator is. I hated the way the maid's speech was rendered in Step-n-fetch-it dialog while Miss Julia, who surely has a heavy Southern accent, is depicted as speaking standard English. The character of the maid is also trite. She could have stepped straight out of Gone With the Wind.
I may have disliked the book because I dislike Miss Julia, who is prissy, prickly and acts with the unthinking arrogance of someone born at the top of a very small social heap.
Miss Julia is a HOOT!.......2007-01-11
Maybe I'm biased because I've lived my life in the South, but Miss Julia is a great character. Ann Ross's writing is fresh and funny and moves quickly. Ms. Ross had me laughing out loud.
MY second favorite Miss Julia!.......2006-11-25
Besides the original Miss Julia book, this is the best! It has the humour and the Southern charm that the original captured. Some of the other Miss Julia books are a litte strident and formulaic, but, in this one, Miss Julia shows her Southern etiquette and her spunk to the reader's delight. The description of the race is very funny and her thoughts are clearly those of a woman trying to move with the times in spite of her better judgment. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Okay filler.......2006-07-29
The phallic jokes were kind of jr high to me. However, I liked that Miss Julia was encouraging the pastor's wife to defy her husband, and have some fun.
Miss Julia rides a Harley.......2005-08-16
Miss Julia is devoted to her housekeeper Lillian, so when Lillian's landlord threatens to evict her, along with the rest of the neighborhood, the prim Presbyterian jumps into action. She and her friends begin a campaign to raise enough money to purchase the threatened neighborhood and to refurbish it for its tenants. The major fundraising event is to be a Poker Run for motorcycles. Miss Julia refuses to participate until she is offered a large sum of money to ride with her friend Sam. Throwing caution to the wind, Miss Julia persuades her prominent friends to participate in the motorcyle ride, and she herself climbs into Sam's sidecar. Thus begins one of the most hilarious and star-crossed motorcyle events ever. Despite the disapproval of her pastor and the sabatoge tactics of an enemy, she dons a pair of black leather pants and rides into the sunset. What will author Ann B. Ross think of next? I can't wait to find out!
Average customer rating:
- A Real "Feel Good" Book
- Great Read
- A surprising, sentimental, but readable Baldacci
- Baldacci portrays a wonderful, moving story
- A heart warming story
|
Wish You Well
David Baldacci
Manufacturer: Grand Central Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0446527165
Release Date: 2000-10-24 |
Amazon.com
David Baldacci has made a name for himself crafting big, burly legal thrillers with larger-than-life plots. However, Wish You Well, set in his native Virginia, is a tale of hope and wonder and "something of a miracle" just itching to happen. This shift from contentious urbanites to homespun hill families may come as a surprise to some of Baldacci's fans--but they can rest assured: the author's sense of pacing and exuberant prose have made the leap as well.
The year is 1940. After a car accident kills 12-year-old Lou's and 7-year-old Oz's father and leaves their mother Amanda in a catatonic trance, the children find themselves sent from New York City to their great-grandmother Louisa's farm in Virginia. Louisa's hardscrabble existence comes as a profound shock to precocious Lou and her shy brother. Still struggling to absorb their abandonment, they enter gamely into a life that tests them at every turn--and offers unimaginable rewards. For Lou, who dreams of following in her father's literary footsteps, the misty, craggy Appalachians and the equally rugged individuals who make the mountains their home quickly become invested with an almost mythic significance:
They took metal cups from nails on the wall and dipped them in the water, and then sat outside and drank. Louisa picked up the green leaves of a mountain spurge growing next to the springhouse, which revealed beautiful purple blossoms completely hidden underneath. "One of God's little secrets," she explained. Lou sat there, cup cradled between her dimpled knees, watching and listening to her great-grandmother in the pleasant shade...
Baldacci switches deftly between lovingly detailed character description (an area in which his debt to Laura Ingalls Wilder and Harper Lee seems evident) and patient development of the novel's central plot. If that plot is a trifle transparent--no one will be surprised by Amanda's miraculous recovery or by the children's eventual battle with the nefarious forces of industry in an attempt to save their great-grandmother's farm--neither reader nor character is the worse for it. After all, nostalgia is about remembering things one already knows. --Kelly Flynn
Book Description
David Baldacci has made a name for himself crafting big, burly legal thrillers withlarger-than-life plots. However, Wish You Well, set in his native Virginia, is a tale of hopeand wonder and "something of a miracle" just itching to happen. This shift from contentiousurbanites to homespun hill families may come as a surprise to some of Baldacci's fans--but they canrest assured: the author's sense of pacing and exuberant prose have made the leap as well.The year is 1940. After a car accident kills 12-year-old Lou's and 7-year-old Oz's father and leavestheir mother Amanda in a catatonic trance, the children find themselves sent from New York Cityto their great-grandmother Louisa's farm in Virginia. Louisa's hardscrabble existence comes as aprofound shock to precocious Lou and her shy brother. Still struggling to absorb theirabandonment, they enter gamely into a life that tests them at every turn--and offers unimaginablerewards. For Lou, who dreams of following in her father's literary footsteps, the misty, craggyAppalachians and the equally rugged individuals who make the mountains their home quicklybecome invested with an almost mythic significance:They took metal cups from nails on the wall and dipped them in the water, and then sat outside anddrank. Louisa picked up the green leaves of a mountain spurge growing next to the springhouse,which revealed beautiful purple blossoms completely hidden underneath. "One of God's littlesecrets," she explained. Lou sat there, cup cradled between her dimpled knees, watching andlistening to her great-grandmother in the pleasant shade...Baldacci switches deftly between lovingly detailed character description (an area in which his debtto Laura Ingalls Wilder and Harper Lee seems evident) and patient development of the novel'scentral plot. If that plot is a trifle transparent--no one will be surprised by Amanda's miraculousrecovery or by the children's eventual battle with the nefarious forces of industry in an attempt tosave their great-grandmother's farm--neither reader nor character is the worse for it. After all,nostalgia is about remembering things one already knows. --Kelly Flynn
Download Description
In 1953, a young family has a devastating car accident which leaves twelve year old Louisa (Lou) and her seven year old brother Oscar (Oz) with their Pulitzer Prize winning father dead and their mother a bedridden, invalid who has completely withdrawn. Their only relative is their father's grandmother who is a stranger to them but who is willing to take the children in and care for their mother. So they move with their mother from their home in New York City to their great-grandmother's remote farm in rural southwest Virginia. As Lou and Oz get to know Louisa, they also get to know the harshly beautiful land that has sustained their family for generations and is the source of their father's acclaimed novels. It's a hard life for two kids from New York City, getting up at five in the morning to start working the farm, no electricity, no phones, an outhouse. But with the help of their new best friend, Diamond Skinner, and the kindliness of town lawyer, Cotton Longfellow, they thrive under their great-grandmother's care until one day a mining company makes an offer for the land that Louisa refuses to sell. To keep their farm, with the mining company and their own greedy neighbors against them, Cotton must try their case in court. Lou and Oz pray for a miracle...and their prayers are answered in undreamed of ways.
Customer Reviews:
A Real "Feel Good" Book.......2007-10-05
Want a book that captures you into a region, time and place? One that makes the reader re-evaluate the true value and meaning of life? If so, this is the book! The reader is allowed to experience each character via emotions and personality expressed in excellent narrative and dialog. It is very enlightening on a number of levels: the southern mountain culture, personal relationships and corporate exploitation of natural resources and people.
This excellent book is definitely one to recommend to friends of all ages. They will thank you for it.
Great Read.......2007-08-21
At first I was I dreaded taking this book from my cousin. But now I am so happy I did! I grew up in the Georgia Mountains and this book felt like home! It made me miss everyone I grew up with and especially my great grandfather!
A surprising, sentimental, but readable Baldacci.......2007-08-16
I'm used to David Baldacci's thrillers, which are never less than good. This was somewhat of a surprise, an affectionate tribute to the Virginia mountains from which his family came. Occasionally that affection tips over into melodrama, and the final chapters are indeed contrived with rather too much maudlin sentimentality and fairy-tale ending. A reviewer elsewhere described it rather nicely as "The Waltons in honey", and I can understand why. Yet the story is told with style and flair, with generally nicely-caught characters and places. Sure, it's a fairy tale, but we could all use a fairy tale now and then, and this one will melt all but the hardest of hearts.
When you read it, you'll find that the title is an especially neat touch.
Baldacci portrays a wonderful, moving story.......2007-08-01
I have read several of Baldacci's books. i.e., Total Control, The Simple Truth, and Saving Grace and I have enjoyed all these novels. This book, if you are not aware, is a major departure from his normal genre. I suppose he is following in the paths of Grisham, Patterson, Hiaasen, and Parker by stepping out of their genre to create human interest, and young adult type stories. I think it's great that these gifted authors are creating such wonderful stories, (A Painted House, by Grisham comes to my mind) especially those stories for the young adult group.
I thought this book was a wonderful, relaxing tale. It has its sad parts but it is still a heartwarming story. The author's descriptive scenes of the beautiful rural Virginia during the 1930's were terrific. Don't expect any mysterious killers, car crashes, love scenes, just a homegrown country story that is very enjoyable. There's no need for me to detail the characters and plot as there are numerous reviews already. In summary, I think it's a moving story with richly portrayed characters that I encourage you to read.
Another novel that has its roots in human drama is Tommytown by Robert L. Saunders. This author is outstanding as he heralds the story of motherhood as 35 year old; Helen struggles to raise 7 children in sheer poverty during the 1950's. It was a time when there was no public assistance and laws protecting women's rights were non-existent. Saunders holds nothing back as he takes the reader into this hamlet and makes you part of Helen's desperate situation. He deals with serious issues with a light-hearted spirit and splatters bits of humor to make Tommytown an exceptional story that all mothers should read. I highly recommend this novel. You won't be disappointed. Have a Good Read.
A heart warming story.......2007-06-29
this is a story of love,strength, courage, humor and most importantly...family
Book Description
Welcome to Louisiana! & Welcome to Homegrown! Let Justin Wilson introduce you to the bounty of Louisiana and the food of friendship and family. In Justin Wilson's Homegrown Louisiana Cookin' Justin serves up all the recipes from his "Homegrown" television series in addition to hundreds more for:
- Appetizers
- Salads and Dressings Gumbos and Soups
- Sauces and Gravies Rice, Pasta, and Stuffings
- Seafood Poultry and Eggs
- Meats
- Game Vegetables
- Breads
- Desserts Beverages
- Preserves
So, come to Louisiana and enjoy some good cookin' and eatin' —I garontee!
Customer Reviews:
Justin Wilson's Homegrown Louisiana Cookin'.......2007-01-10
Excellent cookbook. Easy to follow receipes. My husband pours over that book and tries a new one each week. He cooks on the weekends. I am more of a meat and potatoes eater but I have liked everything he has tried so far.
Excellent.......2007-01-04
I love this book! Can't wait to try out some of the recipes. I really enjoy the pictures and stories also! Worth the cost!
Good Cajun Food...... Gar-on-tee!!!!.......2004-07-01
I had only recently heard of Justin Wilson. My husband and I love cajun food and I wanted to learn how to make it at home. Someone told me about him and a new fan was born!!! My husband bought me this book and another of Justin's to start out with.
The recipes are simple and delicious. I had no trouble making them, even as a first-timer. You can interchange a lot of the different kinds of meat as well - for example with the crawfish etoufee, we have made with shrimp as well as petite lobster.
The little stories in his book are entertaining as well. If you enjoy eating cajun, you will love this book!!!
Whoooo Boy, dat some good eatin'........2002-09-20
I used to watch Justin Wilson's cooking show on PBS. His wit made the show worthwhile. The recipes in this book make it worthwhile. I haven't made them all, but the ones I did make are outstanding. My hat's off to Justin. Jus' add a little wine wit dat and den it's did.
To the reader from Queenstown Maryland........2001-11-19
I doubt very seriously you own this book. For one, to say Justin Wilson is not from Cajun Country is like saying the Pope isn't Catholic. (just so you know Justin was born and reared in Amite, LA) And anyone familiar with cajun or creole cooking knows that the TRINITY is Onions, Green Pepper, and Celery (CELERY, not garlic, though garlic is very good, its not part of the trinity). Further to call Justin Wilson a mediocre man is ludicrous. Justin Wilson was doing his thing long before that "thing" got you your own sitcom. I am afraid you (and the guy from Alabama) have Justin confused with another popular so called "cajun" chef. Jutin Wilson is as authentic as they come. His recipes are as authentic as they come. They are ground in the "old" ways. This cookbook is considered a "bible" in many kitchens, and I HIGHLY reccommend it to anyone interested in learning a little bit about TRUE cajun cooking from a MAN who learned his technique from those passed down from generations. Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler!.
Book Description
Sam Peek's children are worried. Since that "saddest day" when Cora, his beloved wife of fifty-seven good years, died, no one knows how he will survive. How can this elderly man live alone on his farm? How can he keep driving his dilapidated truck down to the fields to care for his few rows of pecan trees? And when Sam begins telling his children about a dog as white as the pure driven snow -- that seems invisible to everyone but him -- his children think that grief and old age have finally taken their toll.
But whether the dog is real or not, Sam Peek -- "one of the smartest men in the South when it comes to trees" -- outsmarts them all. Sam and the White Dog will dance from the pages of this bittersweet novel and into your heart, as they share the mystery of life, and begin together a warm and moving final rite of passage.
Winner of the Southeastern Library Association's Outstanding Author Award.
Customer Reviews:
Wonderful Book.......2007-07-07
I loved this book it is a great book to help with the lose of the loved one.
A Wonderful Story.......2007-06-01
I really enjoyed this book. Terry Kay has a smooth, fresh writing style, and his story of Sam Peek and his White Dog is truly moving. I have just begun Valley of Light and I am already loving this one too. I recommend them both!
Good, Fast read!.......2007-05-15
What a neat story. It was not the most professional I have read but certainly unique and entertaining. Prepare to swipe some tears.
Wonderful Book.......2006-11-10
To Dance with the white dog was a wonderful book and I really enjoyed reading it. I recommend it highly to anyone who has lost someone they love and for those that don't understand what others are going through lossing someone they love. And it shows you that the one you love never dies they are always watching over you. I saw the movie but the book is so much better. Its a wonderful book god bless you all.
Touching - Read this Book!.......2006-09-26
This is a touching book that is worth reading. If you only get to read one book this year make it this one. Terry Kay is one of the few living Southern authors that really understands the little things that make the South special.
Book Description
Classic Civil War novel set on a plantation in the Natchez country.
Customer Reviews:
Sorrow in the Deep South.......2004-05-13
A bestseller in 1934, Stark Young's "So Red the Rose" is an odd study of Mississippi plantation life before, during, and after the Civil War. Stark Young was one of America's leading drama critics of the 20th Century (he died in 1963), and his style seems to have been influenced by the dramatists Chekhov (whose plays were translated by Young) and Maeterlinck. There is a dramatis personae at the beginning of the book, which is helpful because there is no protagonist per se. The plot shifts from character to character and many a character is introduced and then never seen again (just as in real life). The narrative in the first half is quite lanquid, as Young describes the aura of dolce far niente at neighboring plantations near Natchez. When the War comes, there are the classic complaints about petty inconveniences and the assurances that the whole thing will be over in a couple of months. But then the antebellum dream is slowly surrounded by the nightmare of war. Mississippi is invaded and Natchez is bombarded. Two of the young men in the families who joined the Confederate Army do not come back: one is killed, the other presumed dead. A patriarch, returning ill from the front, dies of natural causes. A family is given 20 minutes to vacate their mansion before it is burned down. Then, after the War, when their economic system has been obliterated and their properties mortgaged, the families accept it with a bitter resignation. All this is related in a calm, academic manner, and there may be those readers who find the telling a little cold. But I think Young, a refined critic, was determined not to cater to a taste for 1890's melodrama. His style is straightforward but restrained, an appropriate tone for a tale of Southern aristocracy enduring a Civil Reign of Terror.
How True the Fiction.......2001-06-20
A most enjoyable, fictional, historical account of life in the South during and after the Civil War. Enough truth to make it very believable and the author's descriptive terminology places you in with the characters so that you become very involved with the story personally. A lot of history is learned about Civil War military blunders that certainly effected the outcome of the war. I can understand why they made a movie of this book. It would be a good one to bring back as TV miniseries.
Very engaging look into the culture of the antebellum South........1999-02-22
"So Red the Rose" is a very engaging tale that affords the reader an insight into the culture and attitudes of the antebellum South that became the Confederacy. However, my fellow McGehee descendants (the author was a cousin of actual McGehees in Mississippi) need to bear in mind as they read that this is a NOVEL, not a genealogical register or an entirely true family history.
Classic Civil War novel from the Southern point of view.......1998-08-24
So Red the Rose is a classic fictional account of the Civil War years from the Southern point of view by one of the leading writers of the so-called Southern Renaissance of the first half of the 20th Century. Stark Young grew up among the kind of people with whom he populates his novel, and his novel focuses on what he called "the life of the affections."
So Red the Rose was a best-seller in he 1930's and was made into a movie. Its popularity was eclipsed a few years after its publication by Gone With the Wind. Some critics consider So Red the Rose a better book.
The novel describes a Mississippi family and how they were affected by the war. I found the book deeply moving and engrossing; although I live in a different century, live in a different part of the country than the characters, and hold a different set of values in regard to race, I found myself understanding them, relating to them, and liking them.
Book Description
Mary Alice has spared nothing for her only daughter's wedding -- from seventy-five yards of bridal train to gourmet food for over three hundred guests and enough glittering elegance to make Mary Alice think about finding herself a fourth rich husband to pay for it all.
Practical Patricia Anne has put away her aunt-of-the-bride blue chiffon and settled back into domesticity when fun-loving Mary Alice calls to say they have a post-wedding date with a genealogist from the groom's side of the family. Lunch is a fascinating lesson on the hazards of finding dirty linens in ancestral boudoirs that ends abruptly when their guest scurries off with the local judge, leaving the sisters with their mouths open -- and finishing their luncheon companion's cheesecake -- when the police arrive.
Their mysterious guest has taken a plunge from the ninth floor of the courthouse building -- an apparent suicide. But given the scandals a nosy genealogist might have uncovered, the sisters are betting that some proud Southern family is making sure their shameful secrets stay buried. . .along with anyone who tries to dig them up.
Customer Reviews:
Genealogy gone wild.......2007-07-21
I love the Southern Sisters series. I laugh so hard I cry (and my husband thinks I've lost it!).
I enjoy the reparte between the sisters. They are so much fun!
So real it's scary!.......2007-05-16
This southern mystery caught my attention from the beginning. The sisters were like people I have known all of my life. I can visualize them not only from Ms. George's description, but from people I have actually known. I read Carolyn Haines mysteries first and thought I would not find any other as delightful - this series is!
Here's Looking Up Your Family Tree.......2006-11-01
They say that crab fishing is the most dangerous job on earth and that is probably true. On the other hand one would think that being a professional genealogist would be one of the safest jobs on earth. After all, what could happen to a genealogist? Maybe a paper cut or two and a pair of really strained eyes but real danger would seem to be out of the question. But apparently there are pitfalls that can put the poor genealogist in harms way. Say for example you are doing a family tree for a lady in Birmingham Alabama who is seeking membership in the United Daughters of the Confederacy and you find that she is descended from General Sherman of all people. Did she jump or was she pushed? That is the question that my favorite pair of Southern sisters must answer when a genealogist cousin of Mary Alice's new son-in-law does a swan dive from a tenth floor window of the courthouse. The police call it a suicide but Mouse doesn't think so.
Mary Alice (Sister) and Patricia Anne (Mouse) are a pair of sisters who are about as different as different can be and they keep getting sucked into deadly mysteries. There always seems to be a former student of retired teacher Patricia Anne involved in these mysteries and this book makes no exception. Both Mouse's husband Fred and Sister think that Patricia Anne must have taught everybody in Birmingham because no matter where they go a former student shows up. This time the former student shows up later than usual however and the sisters are not drawn into the mystery by the involvement of Mouse's former pupil, as has been the case before. This time the two have just had lunch with the victim before she takes her leap and their curiosity is naturally peaked. Especially when a stripper finds the naked body of the victim's ex-husband with an extra eye socket in his head.
As with most mysteries of this type the plot is not overly deep and it takes several detours along the way. The hilarious interaction between the sisters however more than makes up for the wandering plot and the dialogue between the characters is about the most well written and imaginative I have ever come across. Before you have read much at all you will feel like you have known these two Southern ladies all of your life and you will love them like the bickering aunts that you may or may not have had. When one of them gets herself into an extremely dangerous situation near the end of the book your adrenaline will start to pump as you wonder if the other sister will in Mighty Mouse fashion arrive just in time to save the day. This story has a little suspense, a little sibling conflict and two hundred and fifty pound Mary Alice in a hot tub with her ninety-year-old boyfriend. What more could anybody wish for in a nice cozy mystery?
Genealogy and murder.......2006-10-15
What causes people to get murderously angry (especially in Alabama)? Well, when they find unwanted anscestors in their family tree, that's what. And Patricia Ann and Mary Alice end up right in the middle of this mess. These books are quite funny, and the mystery is pretty good too. But it's the characters that make these stories so appealing. These two sixty-something southern belle sisters are really something, and it's a lot of fun reading about their lives and their antics. Good fun!
A Mystery Series You Will Never Forget..........2004-04-01
"Murder Runs in the Family" is the third book in the eight-book mystery series featuring the "Southern Sisters." Sadly, Anne George passed away in 2001 and it's a shame that readers will no longer have new, witty dialogues. If you have not read this series - I urge you to order them all and read them in sequence. You will not regret it!
In this book, we find the brash, bold, extra-large Mary Alice in preparation for her daughter's first wedding. Deborah is marrying a former student of her Aunt Patricia Anne's who may also be the former father of her twins as he donated sperm to the clinic! It is funny in a good, clean sort of way. It depicts middle-America at its finest.
Mary Alice finds a little romance of her own in "Murder Runs in the Family" as does Patricia Anne's widowed daughter - Haley. Fred and Patricia Anne make you believe in "happily ever after" as they celebrate 40 years of marriage.
Patricia Anne is constantly amazed at the transformations of her former students. In this book, she amazes herself as she delves into a little geneology.
This is a DELIGHTFUL series. I promise you. You will NOT be disappointed.
Book Description
With so many new and updated rides and attractions opening to celebrate Disneyland's 50th anniversary, now is the perfect time to take the Southern California vacation of a lifetime. This guide helps you find all the magic at Disneyland and Disneyland's California Adventure.
• Quick Guides for attractions, dining, and lodging to help you decide on the best places for your family
• Detailed maps of the Disneyland Resort and other Southern California attractions
• Tips on how to save time and money while avoiding crowds
• Descriptions of rides, attractions, including age and height requirements as well as "scare factors"
• The best times and locations to view parades, one-of-a-kind shows, and spectacular firework displays
• Interesting facts, trivia, and details on Disneyland's first 50 years. Plus hints on finding "Hidden Mickeys"
Customer Reviews:
Helpful, informative, but a little lacking..........2007-08-24
I bought this book from Fodor's because I really needed information on Southern CA in addition to the parks. I basically got overall general information regarding the parks/restaurants and small tidbits about some of the close by attractions. I guess I am used to reading "the Unofficial Guide" products which will just spell it out for you the good, the bad and the ugly.... Some of the info in this book could've been taken straight from a Disney brochure.
Very good advice..........2007-06-16
I have not gone to Disneyland since buying this book, bu can say, from a recent trip, 3 years ago, this is excellent advice, and great reading. It actually gets you excited for a trip to Disneyland, or other southern California destination. The book includes Knott's Berry Farm, Magic Mountain, Universal Studios, and light advice on San Diego, and other closer destinations, to Disneyland.
I haven't been this excited to visit Disneyland, since I was a kid, and now I have two to share it with.
Thanks to the writers of this fine book. Thank you, thank you thank you!!!
Hot Dog! Hot Dog! Hot diggity Dog!!!
MC White said: Awesome!!!
Lots of great tips and advice.......2006-04-11
This book is a must for those traveling to theme parks with children, especially Disneyland. My family and I just spent three days at Disneyland and California Adventure and boy am I glad I read this book! I got a lot of neat information and tips from this book. It's easy to read and helps you plan before you even step foot into the park. Lots of info on rides, where to stay, where to eat, shows, etc. If you have small children, read this book before you take off for your trip.
Book Description
In this much-anticipated follow-up to her bestselling Mama Dip's Kitchen, Mildred "Mama Dip" Council serves up an abundance of new recipes for home-style Southern cooking that is sure to please. From catfish gumbo to breakfast pizza and peach upside-down cake, Mama Dip's Family Cookbook offers recipes for more than three hundred dishes, including many Council family favorites. Also featured are party and celebration foods for family and community gatherings--a reflection of Council's belief that friends and family are essential to a rewarding life. To help novice cooks, Council includes basic information about staple ingredients, kitchen utensils, and important measurements, as well as diagrams for setting up a buffet.
In a charming introductory essay, Council intertwines food-related reminiscences of her rural North Carolina upbringing with a wry recounting of her experiences since the remarkable success of her first book. With this book she passes along to new generations the practical advice and wisdom that have made her a treasure to her family and her community.
Customer Reviews:
Mama Dip.......2007-02-21
Mama Dip is a legend in NC. Her recipes are wonderful. This was a gift for my brother-in-law in who lives in the Pacific Northwest, but loves Southern cooking. His family will certainly benefit from some TRUE Southern recipes from a TRUE Southern cook.
TRY MOMMA DIP KITCHEN COOKBOOK.......2007-02-05
I WAS VERY DISAPOINTED IN THE FAMILY COOKBOOK ,I WAS EXPECTING GREAT RECIPES LIKE HER OTHER BOOK MAMA DIP KITCHEN IT WAS FOOD REAL CAROLINA PEOPLE COOKED.
Mama Dip's Family Cookbook.......2006-02-26
As in the first book, this also is fun reading and even more fun making the recipes. Definitely recommend this for you all if you want to make things like your mom or grandmom did!
"EXCELLENT" .......2006-01-15
Excellent as every recipe mama dip has provided for us. love her cookbooks and her recipes.
A superb cookbook for creating meals and festive trays with down-home Southern flavor.......2005-12-06
A follow-up to the popular "Mama Dip's Family Kitchen," Mama Dip's Family Cookbook is a treasury of more than three hundred recipes for savory, homestyle Southern cooking, from traditional meals to festive party foods and dishes ideal for community gatherings. An introductory essay by author Mildred "Mama Dip" Council, winner of the 2004 North Carolina Restaurant Association Neighbor Award for her role in Chapel Hill's annual community dinner, offers memories of her early life and her experiences as her exceptional cooking style became increasingly well-known and appreciated. Taste-tested dishes such as Spoon Bread, Chicken Noodle Pie, Apple-Nut Squares, Candied Carrots are presented with easy-to- follow instructions. Mama Dip's Family Cookbook is a superb cookbook for creating meals and festive trays with down-home Southern flavor.
Book Description
A true story of drama and courage, Legacy chronicles the life of a woman who created beauty during the harsh era of Reconstruction. Illustrated in full color. Indexed.
Customer Reviews:
A Stunning Accomplishment.......2007-01-22
This book's accomplishment is stunning. I've read it three times, each time discovering new layers of meaning. This is one of those books that becomes part of one's experience. The best kind.
It also affords a model for the work of any aspiring cultural or material historian. And certainly it offers a student of quilt history and/or women's history a rare model and an extraordinarily complex and detailed picture of the life of one woman and her quilts in one time and place.
The book is completely belied by the determinedly and obviously biased views of two reviewers who posted to Amazon.com reviews. I cannot help wondering if they read the same book I read. Their criticism is of the South, not of the book. And it is a criticism of a stereotypical South, at that, not a region far too complex to comprehend in one sweep of bias. And certainly not the world captured in its minutae in this book.
LEGACY: THE STORY OF TALULA GILBERT BOTTOM AND HER QUILTS is not an apologia for the Confederacy or a condemnation of the Union in the Civil War, though a portion of it describes---one feels accurately and certainly matter-of-factly---the experience of a southern family caught up in the terrible combat that war. To read it as two critics read it requires a bias so strong it precludes access to the real meaning of this remarkable story that moves from the ante-bellum South through two world wars with equal passion and loss.
The title is "Legacy: The Story of Talula Gilbert Bottoms and her Quilts," and its writer discovers in the many quilts created in good times and bad the meaning of her legacy from her grandmother. That legacy is most essentially a determined courage to accept life as it comes, without complaint or self-pity, but with a spirit of optimism and endurance that is nurtured by the creation of beauty.
The admiration heard in the authorial voice is, therefore, appropriate. And it is not sentimental. With the author, we discover her grandmother. And along with her, through her grandmother's quilts and the little autobiography Talula left, we come to admire this tough little woman who persevered through rheumatism and overwork, wars and contagions, poverty and modest economic security, and all the while continued to turn out meticulously wrought quilts individualized by her devotion to her craft and to her family, for whom she turned out these quilts.
Burdick lets Talula and her quilts speak, and there is not a drop of self-pity in either.
For anyone wanting to know what life was like for an ordinary family in the Deep South from the mid-19th century through, say, WW II, "Legacy" offers an exceptional gift. There they are--the daily routines, the backbreaking farm and house work, the religious devotion and struggles, the children who die from diseases that left cemeteries full of tiny tombstones. But there also are the joys and devotions of family, the love of place, the achievement in the face of obstacles, and always--always--the quilts that defined one woman's values and meanings of life.
In little things--for instance, in the problems created when the young bride Talula spilled into the well some of the milk she was keeping cold thered--we come to understand her world and her achievement.
In her study, Burdick has relied on techniques common to an approach more recently designated by material historian James Deetz as "material behaviors." Deetz expands the means of the material historian beyond the description and identification of artifacts. He suggests the inclusion of cognitive, psychological, spiritual behaviors to discover the fuller meaning of the material objects.
That is exactly what Burdick does with her grandmother's quilts. She places them in their natural context in order to make sense of them, to discover what they reveal about their art, their craft, about their maker.
And she does it so well, we forget for the reading that we too are not kinsmen of Talula Gilbert Bottoms.
The quiltmaking of the backcountry South is insufficiently documented and understood. This book goes a long way to remediating those problems.
The existing journals of Southern women in the nineteenth century are most often those of women of considerable means, for they were the ones who could afford education. This book provides balance to those, for it describes and analyzes the life of a woman who had struggled to make herself literate, but whose means and circumstances precluded her achieving the exceptional feats she and her husband made accessible to their children, who achieved acclaim in science. The reader will find no moonlight-and-magnolias version of southern life in LEGACY.But he will find truth.
It should be noted that the writer's style is lively and vigorous (She is an English professor in New York state), the photographs of the quilts and of the Bottomses well done and complementary to the text, and the book generally set in an attractive format.
I came away from this book with a far better understanding of life for the ordinary family in the hinterland South and of the role quilts played in the lives of such families and of the women who made them. I also acquired a better appreciation for the quilts themselves and a more informed view of the quilts producd in the Southern backcountry. It is, for instance, generally presumed that poverty accounts for most choices of hinterland quilts. Yet Talula Bottoms experienced grave poverty, teetered on the edge of bankruptcy for a long time, but all the while find the means to create well-planned and executed quilts.
What a pleasure Ms. Burdick gives in her thoughtful, important book on her grandmother and her grandmother's quilts. I heartily recommend it to anyone who enjoys biography, women's or quilt history, cultural history, or who loves quilts. And it is salutary to anyone who needs to see courage in the flesh. A very good read!
A Little Too Magnanimous.......2006-01-08
Although I purchased this book to read about the quilts that were made by Talula Gilbert Bottoms, the overtly magnanimous overtures about Mrs. Burdick's grandparents basically overpowered the story. There are beautiful pictures of the quilts so lovingly made by Mrs. Talula Bottoms, but the saga about her life was just too sanctimoniously written, in my humble opinion, especially those of the trials of Mrs. Bottoms' young life. The excerpts taken from the memoirs of Talula G. Bottoms was, in fact, more interesting to me, and I wish that the author - the granddaughter of Mrs. Bottoms - had utilized more of the original papers instead of the overall, overtly gushing writing style that I found indicative of Mrs. Burdick.
Compromised quality.......2000-06-06
This book is wonderfully written, and had me deeply interested in its subjects even without the fascinating quilting history. I felt maybe ten times, though, while reading it, that there were imposed tones of near-racism from the author. Hers is the classic tone of those from the South who don't want to admit - ever - that there were wrongs committed. The simple, wonderful ancestors of the author taught lessons in their own story, which she told very well, but her attempt to restate all the lessons as defenses of the South in general seemed out of place in the simple environment of her grandmother. Without these few interjections, and an unnecessary afterword to that effect, this is a marvelous book.
This is my favorite Q history book. I've read it three times.......1999-04-02
This book will inspire quilters to endeavor to produce more quilts as well as improve quality. The hardships experienced by Tallulah are written in a way that causes our hearts to emotionally bond with her.
Books:
- Architectural Graphic Standards
- AWAKE JOSH GROBAN
- Bliss: A Novel
- Blood Done Sign My Name: A True Story
- Blues by the Bar: Cool Riffs That Sound Great over Each Portion of the Blues Progression
- Bobbi Brown Living Beauty
- Bright Lights, Big City
- Bunny Tales: Behind Closed Doors at the Playboy Mansion
- Consider the Lobster: And Other Essays
- Crooked Little Vein: A Novel
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