This is the perfect book group selection. A wonderful book that provides so much to talk about. We all loved it!

I found this book startling on so many levels - the emotional honesty about the characters, the intellectual honesty about race, the sheer fascination of Tweet's description of her youth and Cornelia's struggle to come back from alienation, the extraordinary vividness of the prose. The writer takes a big risk in making her own role explicit, but the pay-off at the end is tremendous. Just a great book.

A great historical account of family life as the wilderness of the Mississippi Delta was slowly transformed into an agilcultural society and a place where many call home. This book takes you back to how hard life was for those who paved the way to where we are today.

As a native of Mississippi and a woman, I appreciate the historical value of this story. I loved the fact that the reader knows Mrs. Hamilton was not a professional writer (she says in the intro that she had only written letters before Helen Dick Davis asked her to write out her memoirs), but nonetheless, she eloquently and honestly told her story. Although this book is an autobiography, it reads much like fiction. It is an enthralling story and held my attention like few autobiographies or biographies do.

I am a psychiatrist in training and I really find this book helpful in understanding the concepts of family therapy.

24 stories. All cat related. Some charming, some humorous, all somewhat twisted. This collection has something for the cat lover and the cat phobic alike: pieces that confirm both opinions of our feline friends.

Whenever you see Ellen Datlow's name on an anthology, buy it. She pulls together phenomenal writers with samples of their best writing. In TWISTS, you'll find King, Douglas Clegg, Joyce Carol Oates, Tanith Lee, Kathe Koja, Steven Spruill, William S. Burroughs among others. Clegg's "The Five" is an absolutely disturbing tale of a little girl obsessed with the kittens trapped in the wall. "I Gatti di Roma" by Sarah Clemons tells about regret, redemption, revenge. "Marigold Outlet" by Nancy Kress is a sad, haunting portrait of child abuse. This is a horror collection with stories that gross out, that haunt, that terrify. It is a superb anthology with quick stories for the horror fan.

Soon after moving to the Northwest I read The Lusty Life of Loon Lake Lloyd. The stories are rich and provided great insight into the culture and history of Oregon and the region. I knew many ole' timers just like 'Lloyd' back in Colorado. Individualistic, hard-nosed and harder working, honest (perhaps too honest), self-reliant; sage men, full of the kind of wisdom that you can't get necessarily from a book. The art renderings and the stories are authentic, unique, and well worth the read.
Michael Thessen
Eugene, Oregon

The Lusty Life of Loon Lake Lloyd is the funniest, down to earth book I have ever read! His vivid descriptions mentally place you in each funny situation.

A MUST read for everyone. Anyone that would like to see what life was like for the people who built this country will enjoy this book. It does not matter which side of the fence you are on you will enjoy it and if you are like alot of people today and don't do much but sit on the fence you will enjoy it too. A book about people this country should be taking better care of now ie better healthcare and prescription drugs for our older Americans

A beautiful collection of photographs of rural Mississippi and some of it's population. Square format, black & white, sepia toned, soft focus images seem to be the style de ju and this book fits that bill! Some images delight and surprise, while others made me yawn. Like great music, only the test of time will prove if this collection of images is noteworthy and special, but for now I think they are!

I had never heard of Jack Spencer until I picked up this book of beautiful photos. His images - atmospheric, shadowy, beautifully printed, heavily sepia-tinted shots of mostly people, are nearly all mouth-wateringly luscious. My only reservation is that a few of the photos just feel a little too staged for style over content. But I hope more people get to know about him fast. For me, the most exciting photographic discovery since Sally Mann.

Ellen Douglas has crafted a memoir of sorts. This book is not so much the story of her life, but the story of the lives that came before - she probes the stories which have come down to her as "family folklore" and tries to make sense of it all. She doesn't always get right to the factual answer in each situation, but she describes her journey beautifully.

For example, she talks about the illicit relationship between her grandmother's dear friend and a married distant cousin. As she writes, she makes observations regarding her recollections of these people as well as what others have told her about them. Without coming sharply and directly to the point, she send readers meandering through the collective memory of her family. It is beautifully done and the characters are made more rich because of it.

In this book, Douglas does an excellent job of showing(not telling) the reader what the world was like in the Mississippi of her past. It is the perfect thoughtful book for a languid summer.

There's little I can add to the oddly perceptive blurb above, save that reading this is like having a conversation with someone wise, sensitive, and extremely thoughtful. It's quite straightforward, but still forces you to read slowly, simply because the words seem so carefully chosen. She fits more meaning into a sentence than many writers fit into --- well, pick any number of pages, chapters, volumes, etc.... It's rather aptly named, too. It really does seem like she's gotten as close to the truth as possible even while she's set that up as her impossible task - certainly she's presenting the truth about SOMETHING in an extremely fair and eloquent way. A pleasure to read....

Every year, I purchase New Stories from the South, but I always buy last year's, in paperback, then I might take another few months to read it. So I've just finished the 2000 issue and will start on 2001 one of these days (I have it in my pile of books somewhere). I never regret having purchased or read these anthologies. They always include good writers, both new and familiar, and the stories are an interesting combination of themes, locales and styles. The South is a part, sometimes subtle, but always there, and the characters are seldom sterotypical, their stories never trite. Pick up any of these issues. The stories are timeless.

One wonders a bit at the subtitle: The Year's Best, 2000, and then one remembers this collection, the latest in a long line of such anthologies stretching back to the 1980's, was edited by Algonquin Books' Shannon Ravenel, and she knows more about these things probably than anybody else.

Nevertheless, I would call this a mixed bag of Southern storytelling. Allan Gurganus's "He's at the Office" has a clever premise, one familiar to anyone from a close-knit, aging family, and once again showcases Gurganus's sharp eye for detail and razzmatazz prose style, but the ending is silly and the story collapses because of it. R.H.W. Dillard's "Forgetting the End of the World" seems much ado about nothing and strains for a significance it most certainly does not achieve. These are two of the weaker links in the chain. Among the stronger ones are "Mr. Puniverse", a marvelous comedy of unrequited passion, Romulus Linney's "The Widow", which has the rhythm and cadence of a good Appalachian folk ballad, Melanie Sumner's "Good Hearted Woman", the book's longest piece and most obvious crowd pleaser, about a young woman's confrontations with work, love, and family, and Margie Rabb's "How to Tell a Story," my own favorite of the bunch, and an incisive, very moving, and all-too-true look at the dog eat dog world of university creative writing programs and one young writer's determination to tell stories despite what happens to her and the stories she tells.

This is an attractively designed paperback. Each story ends with an author biography, with the writer revealing why he/she wrote that particular story.

EDWIN DICKINSON: Dreams and Realities is a major work. Again we have a catalogue for an exhibition (that started at the Albright-Knox Gallery in 2002 and is still travelling) that is so well written and illustrated that it becomes a standard reference for any library of art.

Dickinson is not a name that carries instant recognition outside of art historians' and artists' circles. He spanned (1891 - 1978) a period in American art history which jumped from academic realism to cubism and abstract expressionism and through all of these changes he retained his own style, pausing here and there to prove that he was thoroughly informed by all the changes in the arts while continuing his mission as a representational artist. His studios were in New York and in Cape Cod and it is here that he observed and painted the world as he saw it. Some of his canvases took years to complete: other canvases and works on paper were dashed off in a most facile fashion.

This major book celebrates an artist who probably will always be an enigma in the history of American art and brings his entire oeuvre to our attention. We are shown self portraits painted throughout his career, always a fascinating and valid way to track an artist's progress. The color reproductions are a bit bland and tend to flatten the images. Oddly the black and white drawings suffer the same fate, becoming shades of gray rather than strong lines. The various contributors to the book add a significant dimension of awe for this under-appreciated artist. It is up to the viewer of this book to judge how visually important rather than historically significant was Edwin Dickinson.

EDWIN DICKINSON: DREAMS AND REALITIES is a major work. Again we have a catalogue for an exhibition (that started at the Albright-Knox Gallery in 2002 and is still traveling) that is so well written and illustrated that it becomes a standard reference for any library of art.

Dickinson is not a name that carries instant recognition outside the circles of art historians and artists. He spanned (1891 - 1978) a period in American art history which jumped from academic Realism to Cubism and Abstract Expressionism and through all of these changes he retained his own style, pausing here and there to prove that he was thoroughly informed by all the new schools in the arts while continuing his mission as a representational artist. His studios were in New York and in Cape Cod and it is here that he observed and painted the world as he saw it. Some of his canvases took years to complete: other canvases and works on paper were dashed off in a most facile fashion.

This major book celebrates an artist who probably will always be an enigma in the history of American art and brings his entire oeuvre to our attention. We are shown self portraits painted throughout his career, always a fascinating and valid way to track and artist's progress. The color reproductions are a bit bland and tend to flatten the images. Oddly the black and white drawings suffer the same fate, becoming shades of gray rather than strong lines. The various contributors to the book add a significant dimension of awe for this under-appreciated artist. It is up to the viewer of this book to judge how visually important rather than hisortically significant was Edwin Dickinson.

The collaborative effort of Douglas Dreishpoon (Curator of 20th-Century art, Albright-Knox Art Gallery), Mary Ellen Abell (Assistant Professor, Dowling College, Oakdale, New York), and independent American art historian and expert Francis V. O'Connor, Edwin Dickinson: Dreams And Realities showcases the life and work of Edwin Dickinson (1891-1978), a representational painter best known for his abstract expressionist landscapes, nudes, and still life paintings. An informative monograph details Dickinson's more than 35 years as a very highly regarded and influential American painter. Profusely illustrated with 72 full color reproductions and 91 black/white illustrations, Edwin Dickinson: Dreams And Realities is a quite welcome and very highly recommended addition to academic, personal, and professional Art History reference collections.

The tendency of this book to ridicule America (its history, its culture, its priorities, etc.) really calls into question the objectivity and political persuasion of its authors. Whether it's the destruction of the environment or world poverty, America and the American people are always to blame. We use too much energy; we don't share enough; blah blah blah. America does more to promote peace and economic development throughout the world than any other country. While the authors of this book don't seem to be so, I, for one, am PROUD to be an American

The general feel of this book is dark and dull. Graphics are oddly benign,upside, the Geography in Action sections offer realistic insight into Geographic concepts. Clawson and Fisher tried.