Some people search for deep truths in church, some in books and some in meditation. Jerry Ellis seeks his truths on foot, on long, mostly solitary walks on trails laden with personal and historical meaning. In his 1991 book _Walking the Trail: One Man's Journey Along the Cherokee Trail of Tears_, he traced the deadly march that his Cherokee ancestors were forced to make, and in the process deepened his connection with them and their world. In his newest book, _Walking to Canterbury_, he sets off to rediscover his English roots by retracing the 60-mile path from London to Canterbury walked by thousands of pilgrims in medieval times, and immortalized in Chaucer's _Canterbury Tales_.

I found _Walking to Canterbury_ captivating. From the start, it's clear that Ellis' quest is both personal and spiritual. Through his eyes, the English landscape becomes vividly alive, small events such as finding a scallop shell lost by some long-dead pilgrim take on deep significance, and every encounter is charged with psychological depth and spiritual meaning. Anyone who seeks or has experienced moments of great clarity and connectedness will recognize the place Ellis writes from, and admire his ability to snare some of that ineffable and evanescent magic and share it with his readers.

Ellis also does a seamless job of weaving a great deal of history into his narrative. Along the way we not only learn a lot about Ellis and the people who share bits and pieces of his journey with him, but many fascinating details about how people in medieval England lived, loved, and saw the world a millenium ago.

As storytellers have known at least since Homer's time, a journey is a ripping good way to tell a story, and a natural, perhaps primal metaphor for life itself. In _Walking to Canterbury_, Ellis proves himself both a gifted storyteller and a worthy guide.

Robert Adler, author of _Science Firsts: From the Creation of Science to the Science of Creation_ (John Wiley & Sons, September 2002).

This is a fun little book, which reminds me of On the Road by Jack Kerouac in an odd sort of way. Laced with detailed history of the Middle Ages in England, as well as modern characters with compelling stories, ranging from sacred to sexual, this journey delighted me with the very first step out of London. Ellis has an keen ear for language and a better ear for irony and humor. Most of all, the book is a unique way to look at the past while embracing the present. I suspect this will begin to appear on many required reading lists for high schools and colleges. Highly recommended.

Walking to Canterbury took me down a historical road I didn't know existed. I had avoided Chaucer in college, thinking that his tales were totally fiction. It turns out, however, that he based his stories on real pilgrims. Chaucer had lived in Kent, where Ellis' journey takes his readers. The book and adventure sparkle with interesting characters and Ellis has a way of making them leap off the pages. One jumped right into my lap and...well, that's another tale. If you like history, adventure, people and want to forget the routine of the modern world for a while, read this book.

THIS WAS ONE OF THE MOST HEARTWARMING BOOKS I HAVE READ IN A LONG TIME. I FELT I HAD GOT VERY CLOSE TO JERRY BECOMING A SOUL MATE. I FELT A STRONG CONNECTION TO HIM AFTER READING THIS BOOK AS I HAVE BEEN GOING ON A JOURNEY OF MY OWN AND HAVE NOW COME HOME. HE GAVE ME THE DESIRE TO ALWAYS CONTINUE MY LOVE OF THE BEAUTIFUL LAND CALLED THE USA. I HAVE NEVER TRAVELED THERE BUT HOPE TO ONE DAY AND ENJOY THE PLACES AND TYPES OF PEOPLE HE HAD THE PLEASURE TO VISIT. THIS MAY NOT BE WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR IN A REVIEW BUT IT IS MORE GRATITUDE FOR THE WONDERFULL ADVENTURE THAT HAS BEEN SHARED IN THIS BOOK AND THE BRILLIANT SPIRIT OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. THANKYOU SO MUCH JERRY AND AMAZON COM.

This is a wondrous book filled with detailed Civil War history and the author's personal encounters with fascinating people as he walks across Georgia, following in the footsteps of Sherman. I felt like I was right there with the "bummers" who plundered Southern homes and burned them to the ground. At times terribly sad, this book is also enriched with heart-lifting humor. Highly recommended.

So is Jerry Ellis in this book, which is a first person account of his thoughts and encounters as he walks the Cherokee Trail of Tears. He blends what he sees and who he meets along the trail with ancestoral stories and beliefs in a way that educates and entertains the reader. He also manages to restore a person's faith in the kindness of Americans.

I use this book as a classroom novel in my high school nonfiction course. The issues that Jerry struggles with in his book are some of the same ones that my students face as they prepare to leave school and figure out where they belong in the world. What keeps me from giving the book a five star rating is that Jerry sometimes gives the reader an up close and personal look at his love life in a way which doesn't really add to his narrative.

Otherwise, I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys the cerebral slant of an excellent travelogue and who wants to know more about the spiritual traditions and history of the Cherokee.

Ellis knocked my socks off with his 900 walk along the Cherokee Trail of Tears. He touched my heart and soul, made me laugh and cry. I had read the first edition when it came out in 1991 and yesterday finished the 2001 edition just released by Bison Books that also does Black Elk Speaks. If you want a spiritual lift in these trying times, then this journey is for you. I also learned history and myths of the Cherokee I had not heard before. Well researched and beautifully written.

This is a wonderfully-written book that helps us rethink our connection to our fellow humans and to all of Nature. Jerry Ellis has the ability to connect to people, causing them to trust him immediately and open up. Because of his encounters with so many during his walk along the Trail of Tears, I am encouraged about the state of our ability to be more tolerant of one another. Jerry also conveys a sense of calmness and patience and it has helped me to stop and take a few minutes to breathe, and look up, and look around. Also, to listen. Jerry writes with clarity and sureness, and it's as if he's telling you this story in person. I highly recommend this book.

This book provides an introduction to the various technical and business aspects of e-commerce for the small to medium business owner or manager. The authors begin by stressing the importance of e-commerce and tremendous growth potential for companies that do it right. After a few brief case studies, they delve into some of the more technical aspects, such as how a company can connect its databases to off-the-shelf e-commerce software. They describe what a server does and give an overview of the features of the top-selling server software. They also summarize the possibilities for electronic payments and how they work, as well as the kinds of security that are needed in various parts of an e-commerce network and why. The final chapters in the book provide an in-depth look at online auctions, project deployment, and their own e-commerce program of study.

All in all, the book sticks to the surface of many of the technical issues, so readers without a great deal of technical expertise should have no trouble understanding it. On the other hand, if you are looking for technical details, you may want to go beyond the level of this book.

As an IT professional, I was a bit (just a bit) disappointed with the content of book. The authors have done a very good job in including almost all points that need to be looked into in an e-commerce environment, but as in all "all-in-one" books, some areas, especially those that fall into the realm of business strategy, are left weak. Even in the first four chapters, where e-commerce strategies and approaches are set out, I felt an inclination towards the technical side of e-commerce. However, the book is very successful in conveying different architectures, together with the pros and cons, to the reader who has the basic knowledge about internet technology. I believe that this is not enough to "build the e-empire", but the book has enough potential to act as an infrastructural guide and a reference for e-commerce deployment projects, especially for project managers and executives.

Regardless of your understanding of e-commerce, you will learn something new or be reminded of something you haven't thought of in years. For the business person this books outlines how to create your strategy and build consensus across the organization to help insure the success of your initiative. It provides you with an understanding of the technologies involved and the challenges of integrating them to your backend systems. For the techie it provides good examples of successful architectures, addresses security as well as payment systems. But the most important message for me in this book is that Ecommerce is more than cool technology. It is cool technology but without a firm understanding of the business issues and processes it as well as all IT projects will fail. This books shows, or reminds, you of the potential pitfalls and how to manage around them.

This is probably one of the worst books I have read in a long time. Mr. Ellis travelogue fails to on so many levels it is difficult to list them all here. He provides little historical context, his opinions are pompous, his anecdotes are trite, his personal life stories are self-absorbed, and his grand attempt to define what it means to be 'Southern' fails. I can only attribute it to my Yankee's perseverance that I did manage to make it through this tripe. I believe that if General Sherman wanted to inflict true pain on the South, rather than burning his way to the sea, he should have forced the rebels read this book.

On his 1994 attempt to re-trace William Tecumseh Sherman's trek from Atlanta to Savannah, Jerry Ellis searches for vestiges of that traumatic time reflected in the people he meets along the way.

This book is an unsuccessful hybrid of social history and an "on-the-road" travelogue. Ellis uncovers no previously undiscovered traces of the effect of Sherman's journey in the New South and after a while it appears he loses sight of his goal. This book has one saving grace: Ellis's natural story-telling ability which captures the spirits of the people he encounters. However, this bright spot isn't enough to compensate for Ellis's failure to achieve his original objective; it just turns this into a passable diary of someone's hike.

In 1864, General Sherman, Union general, began his infamous (or famous) trek through Georgia, vowing to make Georgia howl. Howl it did. And still does. More than a hundred years later, Jerry Ellis walked the same path. It was a trek in search of his own Southerness, and an homage to his father who had died not long before. Along the way, he met people who still remember Sherman and the devastation he and his army left in their wake as though it were yesterday. He found Southern hospitality. He found a South that finds it hard to forget.

This is a personal story, not meant to simply tell the history of the places and people he finds along the way. Their histories are interwoven with his own, their presents forming a framework for Ellis' coming to terms with the possibility of losing the woman he loves because of the journey, and with the death of his father. It adds to what he knows about himself and who he is, a Southerner with ties to the War Between the States, and part Cherokee with ties to a past unrelated in many ways to that war.

This is an interesting view of history and how it affects people's lives, even generations later. At times, Ellis becomes too bogged down in his own problems and we wonder if he misses telling about other things we might have found interesting. But all in all, this is a book for Southerners who know and understand their ties to the South, or who are still trying to find those ties and weave them back into their lives.

Readers who like this book might also want to read other of Ellis' journeys. Also "Womenfolks: Growing up Down South" by Shirley Abbott might be interest. They might also like to read an account of Sherman's march to the sea, such as those included in the nuemrous Sherman biographies, or sets of histories of the war, including the Time Life Civil War volume "Sherman's March."