I've been interested in the history of fantasy for a while, and I was definately intrigued when I happened upon this title. I immediately ordered it and read it. The Well at the World's End is marvelous. Every once in a while I start wanting to read a romance, and this is a good romance. The story is pretty original and was very different for its time. The story follows Ralph as he searches for the WELL AT THE WORLD'S END. He has enemies and intrigued galor to fight through. Along the way, there is also a love story, too.

The Well at the World's End is a good read even for modern readers. It is an excellent example of "romance." It is also good just as a curiosity read. Fans of Tolkien, Lewis, and Eliot should visit William Morris's writings. Personally, my favorite thing about the book was the archaic prose. For the first twenty pages I thought it would be bothersome. After that, I was used to it and the book flowed nicely. It is sad that few people read William Morris today.

I rank this book up there with the Gormenghast series and the Lord of the Rings. A fantasy masterpiece, it is the precursor for everything that came after. Yes, the archaic medieval language is tough to get into at first, but after ten or twenty pages it becomes natural to the mind and presents no problem. One sees that the language is part of the beauty. Overall, this book is like one of those medieval detailed tapestries, with kings, adventurers, knights and noble women trotting through forests toward distant castles. This is medieval romance at its finest, and because it dates from 1898, it is happily free of the Tolkien imitativeness that has so infected a large portion of modern fantasy. Forget Terry Brooks, read The Well At the World's End.

You've got to wonder why people fall all over themselves in slavish imitation of Lovecraft and his "mythos" and yet nobody seems to have planned any literary adventures in William Morris' world of Upmeads. I've been interested in fantasy literature and its history for a while, and a week ago I finally sat down and read this book. I was expecting it to be better than Lord of the Rings, and it was. I've always preferred Lewis' Narnia to Tolkien's Middle-Earth, and Morris gives me another alternative (albeit the alternative that actually spawned both Narnia AND Middle Earth). Ralph and Ursula make one of the most affectionate, lovable couples to be found in fantasy literature, the physical descriptions of landscapes and clothing and people are all the more gorgeous for their archaic nature, and you even get as an occasional bonus William Morris inserting his pre-Fabian socialist ideas into people's mouths. If people are going to write imitative fantasy novels, they should start with THIS, and not Tolkien or Lovecraft.

In the summer of 1967 the USMC found itself engaged in a battle that caught them by suprise and cost them over 180 soldiers KIA and many more WIA. Vietnam was a war where many restriction were placed on American fighting forces, those restrictions were even stricter in the strange terrain of the DMZ. Like other books by Mr. Nolan (Into Laos and Into Cambodia come to mind) there is rich detail and information woven into a story by a chronological telling of event leading up to and through the battle. While there is a very good and informative sitrep of American (particularly USMC) involvement in Vietnam the strength of this book is it's "put you in the foxhole" eyes view of the fight. I had never read an account of where almost an entire American Company was overrun by large NVA forces, it is not pretty. I have read that ear collecting was something that happened in the war to dead enemy soldiers, the NVA put their own sick twist on this sort of war atrocity by collecting USMC tattoos from fallen grunts. There are graphic descriptions of the early M-16 problems which ended up causing the USA and USMC many casualties. This book contains some things that really suprised me, NVA soldiers equiped with flame-throwers looking for suvivors of the initial ambush, NVA artillery support which was accurate and protected from US airpower hitting American forces with a sustained barrage, NVA use of USMC gear such as flak vests and radios, American tanks being blown away like toys. There are many sad twists, if you are looking for a John Wayne type combat read stick to a novel, this one hurts the heart. I can't say enough about this book, if you are a student of the fighting in Southeast Asia get this book, Mr. Nolan really puts things together in this clear and painfully vivid book.

Operation Buffalo should be made into a Movie as it the best written book I have ever read about what the Marines and Corpsmen of Northern I Corps endured in Viet Nam. Time and again the men of the First Battalion Ninth Marines found themselves fighting against numerically superiour forces with very little support available at critical moments. Mention is made in the book that the First Battalion Ninth Marines was marked by the North Vietnames Army for destruction. I can't say for sure that this was true, but "The Walking Dead" nick-name was was paid for in blood. Keith N. Price Former HM3 Disability Retired Bravo Company, First Battalion Ninth Marines

First heard about the prime day of the book from a fellow MARINE who had been there and described it as similar to a firefight we had both been in, except there was no rear. I knew many men who died during the operation, and know many who survived. To a one they say it is accurate, and are proud to have their story told. My first thought was that NOLAN had been there. Oddly enough there is a quote on the liner notes from an upcoming 3 star Gen Libutti. He doubts the statement from McNamara" that all is quiet on the DMZ" Operation Buffalo is a book that men pass from one friend to another.

The utopian idealist Wendell Berry has blessed us again with a book that lambasts "progress" and whose main character lives a life most would deem too ordinary. But the limits of Jayber Crow's ambitions and his avoidance of authority give him the space to observe the human condition, and these observations hold the sincerity of the philosopher and the awe of the innocent. Berry is the master of the synechdoche: the microcosm represents the universal; the universal is in the details. I'm not quite sure how he does it. His use of the language is elegant, yet straightforward. His faith permeates every line. This is a craftsman writing at the top of his game. The reader may need some perseverance to reach the point at which Jayber Crow finds his destiny in Port William, but once he's in his chair, compromising with ego, and studying the community he loves, the reader will be hooked. By the time Jayber moves to his cabin in the woods, the reader will want to stay alongside him, to live deliberately and with Thoreau-like simplicity.

I have read Wendell Berry's nonfiction, but I am a newcomer to his fictional Port William community. Reading this book is like a visit to a simpler life in rural America. Set in 1986, this novel tells the life story of Jayber Crow (1914- ), orphan, doubting preministerial student, bachelor barber, grave digger, church janitor, and progressive pacifist. Although an ordinary man, Jayber is a truly memorable character who, from his later years, reflects upon his life with clarity and poetic insight. "I am a pilgrim," he says, "but my pilgrimage has been wandering and unmarked. Often what has looked like a staight line to me has been a circle or a doubling back. I have been in the Dark Wood of Error any number of times. I have known something of Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, but not always in that order" (p. 133).

This book is about many things, but should be read mostly for the sake of experiencing Berry's really fine writing. It is the story of Jayber's unrequitted love for a married woman, Mattie Chatham. It is a fictional memoir about faith, loss, farming, and finding one's place in the world. "I will have to share the fate of this place," Jayber writes about his declining community. "Whatever happens to Port William happens to me" (p. 143). It is also about bearing witness to dying farms and small businesses.

Jayber's memoir is filled with page after page of profound insights. For instance, about growing old and loss he writes: "I whisper over to myself the way of loss, the names of the dead. One by one, we lose our loved ones, our friends, our powers of work and pleasure, our landmarks, the days of our allotted time. One by one, the way we lose them, they return to us and are treasured in our hearts. Grief affirms them, preserves them, sets the cost. Finally a man stands up alone, scoured and charred like a burnt tree, having lost everything and (at the cost only of the loss) found everything, and is ready to go" (p. 353). Examining marriage, Jayber says: "I saw too how a marriage, in bringing two people into each other's presence, must include loneliness and error. I imagined a moment when husband and wife realize that their marriage included their faults, that they do not perfect each other, and that in making their marriage they also fail it and must carry to the grave things they cannot give away (pp. 193-4). About the pace of modern life, he observes: "The people are in an emergency to relax. They come for the peace and quiet of the great outdoors. Their eyes are hungry for the scenes of nature. They go very fast in their boats. They stir the river like a spoon in a cup of coffee. They play their radios loud enough to hear above their motors. The look neither left nor right. They can't slow down" (p. 331).

Although somber in tone, Jayber's story reveals that wonders do happen in life. Jayber learns we live our lives with questions, the answers to which must be lived out "perhaps a little at at time" (p. 54), or which may take longer than a lifetime for us to find. "This is a book about Heaven," Jayber explains. "I know it now. It floats among us like a cloud and is the realest thing we know and the least to be captured, the least to be possessed by anybody for himself. It is like a grain of mustard seed, which you cannot see through the crumbs of earth where it lies. It is like a reflection of the trees on the water" (p. 351). This book is Berry at his best, and one of the best novels I've read this year.

G. Merritt

I bought this book because I like everything that Berry writes, but I wasn't expecting anything too great. A story about a barber in Port William? Seemed a little strange to me, but because it was by Berry, it was worth a read. This book turned out to be a great surprise, true to Jayber Crow's observation that all of the good things in life have come as a surprise. This novel follows the thread of many of the stories we have read about the Port William membership. Many of the familiar characters are here. But it seems that all of the threads of Berry's many works are woven here into a fine and beautiful tapestry. Berry's major themes about stewardship, sense of place, the importance of caring relationships, sense of scale, etc, are all here in a great story of learning, love, and forgiveness. This is a book about much more than just Where. It is also a book about who, what, why, and especially how. Jayber Crow chronicles the changes that modernity and industrialism bring to small town America. Country people were trying to get away from "demanding circumstances." But they "couldn't quite see at the time, or didn't want to know, that is was the demanding circumstances that had kept us together." The changes that are chronicled here apply to urban life as well as rural life. Great neighborhoods and family/neighbor networks were also part of the life of the great pre-industrial cities. A very large part of the answer to modern decay is the restoration of rural life, but we cannot ignore the cities. The question for us is how to follow Jayber and "lay our claim" on a place, rural or urban, and make it "answerable to our lives." Right living, in all of the details laid out by Jayber, is a large part of the answer to modern problems. A barber turns out to be an ingenious stratagem for storytelling and the dispensing of Berry's distilled wisdom. And it is a most unusual and gratifying love story as well!

Ignorant, I found PrairyErth at a book-giveaway and would now have to count it among the best books I've ever read. The book is a thorough examination of a county that (possibly) many people would assume contains nothing but prairie grass. The point is how deep a map can be drawn of even the neglected places. Heat-Moon is amazing and inspiring, covering so many bases without over-stepping any of them. I had never even heard of Chase County but now I feel as though its every acre has been tattooed on my inner eyelids. Oh, and also: read it slow and steady. Pace yourself as Heat-Moon has..

I read this book based on loving Blue Highways and recognizing Least Heat-Moon as a beautiful writer. I never thought that I would be enthralled with one county in one state; yet, I was truly engrossed each page of this book about one county in Kansas. Least Heat-Moon has a way of touching the minute specifics of the history of our country and does it in such a way that you feel you are there sipping tea or a beer with the neighbor next door each step of the way across the county. A wonderful study of Americana history and while the length of the book is possibly intimidating to many, those of us who really appreciate excellent writing will smile our way across the county inch by inch and wish there were more!

Open the book. Chase County, Kansas has U.S. Route 50 and the Kansas Turnpike running through it. The Flint Hills are the last remaining grand expanse of tall grass in America. The population of Chase County is 3,013. This is clearly William Least Heat-Moon's masterpiece. The closest reading experience I can summon is that of Barry Lopez's ARCTIC DREAMS.

Chase County, Kansas is an empty area in relative terms. The arrangement of the book is to follow a sort of geographical grid. The author introduces new concerns with a series of paragraphs and quotations from other works. Individual stories are inserted for interest and historical verisimilitude. For example, Gabriel Jacobs was a Dunkard preacher from Indiana. He and his wife arrived in Chase County in 1856.

The book is filled with maps. Cottonwood Falls, State Lake, Spring Creek, Den Creek, Rock Creek, Cottonwood River, Sharp Creek, Roniger Hill, Landon Rocks and Bazaar are shown on the map of the Bazaar Quadrangle. Chase County is tall grass country and beef is the major pursuit. It absolutely depends upon grass. The work of Chase is to turn soil and cellulose into humaly digestible carbohydrates and protein. Tribal people took their health from prairie plants. Antelope are returning to the Flint Hills through a restocking program. The author observes that the land in Chase County is like a good library, it lets a fellow extend himself. Common Chase properties of the land are the vales and uplands through which the author enjoyed traveling.

A review by me cannot do justice to this book. The work is as multi-dimensional as EXECUTIONER'S SONG by Norman Mailer. Vachel Lindsay traveled down the Cottonwood Valley. A student going to high school in Chase County thinks there is no privacy, no opportunity to be one's self. A grade school teacher told the author she hoped that pople in Chase County could learn to love themselves less and the children more. The largest cottonwood in Kansas has a trunk 27 feet around. The Timber Culture Act of 1873 gave 160 acres of land to the settler who would plant ten of these acreas in trees. In 1931 a Fokker plane carrying the famous football coach Knute Rockne crashed in Chase County near Bazaar. People ariving in Chase County after 1862, the Homestead Act, were limited to taking a quarter section, 160 acres. Most county bottom land had been claimed by 1870. Absentee land ownership has been a fact of life in Chase County since the 19th century when the English aristocracy and the railroads owned large tracts.

The author says that for him writing is not a search for explanations, but a ramble. He believes that Chase County is the ideal place to develop a prototype of a new agricultural community. The book began when the author arrived at Roniger Hill with an image of a topographical grid in his head. Of the dozen settlements in Chase County, three or four can still be called villages and two are towns. The significance of praryerth is that Chase County lies among it. "The Praryerths and Blackerths are deep soils, lightly granular, relatively nonacid, unleached, with full stores of humus and minerals."

Required to read Henry for my AP English Language class, I came into the play with a bias. I honestly felt that it would be a boring political play. I was utterly wrong! A huge fan of Shakespeare, I found Henry V to be a formidable match for the Bard's more critically acclaimed plays, such as Hamlet and Macbeth. Henry has it all! Shakespeare's attitude toward Henry the King is certainly one of admiration. By communicating the fact that an effective monarch must have a complete understanding of the common subjects (Pistol and Bardolph and Quickly), Shakespeare sets up Henry to be the ideal Christian king. The controlled language of Henry's speeches, particularly his response to the Dauphin's idiotic insult, also glorifies Henry. I certainly recommend this play to anyone, fan of Shakespeare or not.

I looked long and hard (and asked many a scholar) for the "perfect" Shakespeare publication that I might purchase to study "King Henry V" (for a experiential education requirement, I had undertaken the translation of Henry V into American Sign Language). The Arden Shakespeare came highly recommended by everyone, and has lived up entirely to all its rave reviews.

I will never buy Shakespeare from another publisher. While these books may be slightly more expensive than a "mass market" edition, I believe that if you are going to take the time to read and understand Shakespeare, it is well worth the extra dollar or two. The Introduction, the images, and plethora of footnotes are irreplaceable and nearly neccessary for a full understanding of the play (for those of us who are not scholars already). The photocopy of the original Quatro text in the appendix is also very interesting.

All in all, well worth it! I recommend that you buy ALL of Shakespeare's work from Arden's critical editions.

Written by Shakespeare for Queen Elizabeth I amidst a time of Irish rebellion, Henry V more than adequately serves its intended purpose of galvanizing nationalistic fervor. It proved itself to be an unwavering and unfaltering impetus of patriotism in Shakespeare's day, during WWII, and still today it continues to resonate and reverberate this provocatively telling tale of the most gloriously revered monarch in English history.

Henry V's stirring orations prior to the victorious battles of Harfleur("Once more unto the breach") and Agincourt("We few, we happy few, we band of brothers") astonish and inspire me every time I read them. Simply amazing. Having read Henry IV Parts I&II beforehand, I was surprised Shakespeare failed to live up to his word in the Epilogue of Part II in which he promised to "continue the story, with Sir John in it." The continuing follies of the conniving Bardolph, Nym, & Pistol and their ignominious thieving prove to be somewhat of a depricating underplot which nevertheless proves to act as a succinct metaphor for King Harry's "taking" of France.

Powerful and vibrant, the character of Henry V evokes passion and unadulterated admiration through his incredible valor & strength of conviction in a time of utter despondency. It is this conviction and passion which transcends time, and moreover, the very pages that Shakespeare's words are written upon. I find it impossible to overstate the absolute and impregnable puissance of Henry V, a play which I undoubtedly rate as the obligatory cream of the crop of Shakespeare's Histories. I recommend reading Henry IV I&II prior to Henry V as well as viewing Kenneth Branagh's masterpiece film subsequent to reading the equally moving work.

VROOM VROOM! Went a little motorcycle going down a hotel floor. If you like adventure stories then Mouse on the Motorcycle is the book for you! This book is about a little boy who goes to a hotel. And he happens to stay in a room where a little mouse and his family live. Keith, the little boy, and the mouse Ralph became great friends. Keith collects little toy cars and Ralph loves to ride them.
He has a lot of adventures on them. Ralph finds the motorcycle and during the night drives it down the hallway and has the time of his life! When Keith and his family leave the hotel, Keith asks Ralph to go home with him. Should Ralph go with Keith to be his pet, or should he stay with his family? You have to find out by reading the book.

I believe that Beverly Cleary is the world's most important children's author. Even adults will read and enjoy Beverly Cleary's books. my personal favorite is The Mouse and the Motorcycle. It is about a mouse named Ralph. Ralph is a regular speed demon. He has a love for the thrill of speed. The Mouse and the Motorcycle teaches the values of keeping promises and honesty. Ralph is always breaking promises. Everytime he does, something happens that causes a big problem. The book teaches respect. When Ralph ignores his mother, something happens like falling in a wastepaper basket. In the story's conclusion, Ralph realizes all he wants is to be a respectable mouse. The Mouse and the Motorcycle is enjoyable for all audiences. Its fun and exciting plot makes it a good read-aloud story. A good example of this can be found on page 23. "There it was at the end-the motorcycle! Ralph stared at it and then walked over and kicked a tire. Close up the motorcycle looked even better than he expected. it was new and shiny with a good pair of tires. Ralph walked all the way around it, examining the pair of chromium mufflers and the engine and the hand clutch. It even had a little license plate so it would be legal to ride it. "Boy!" Ralph said to himself, his whiskers quivering with excitement. "Boy, oh Boy!"." Every boy and girl of any age would love this story! Comparing Beverly Cleary's books, I have discovered they should be rated first. The majority of children's books are aimed mainly to young girls while Beverly Cleary's books are enjoyed by girls and boys. Beverly Cleary's books promote good values unlike books such as Sideways Storys from Wayside School by Louis Sachar. The children in these stories do not respect their elders. Beverly Cleary's beleivable characters make her silly plots seem real. Louis Sachar's characters are not believable which make the plot just plain weird. The Mouse and the Motorcycle should be considered a children's classic.

Beverly Cleary's books have entertained kids for nearly 50 years, and this wonderful introduction to Ralph S. Mouse is no exception. Ralph is a young mouse living between the walls of the Mountain View Inn. He and his family always depend on the crumps of food that are dropped by the vacationers who stay at the Inn. It is critical that they remain hidden from human eyes lest the hotel sprays the Inn. One summer day, Ralph hears a boy making the sounds that all young children make when playing with toy motorcycles, so Ralph stealthily investigates the cycle when it's owner, Keith, is out of the room. When Keith discovers Ralph on the motorcycle, he makes a new friend by showing Ralph how to get the contraption to "go." "Pb-pb-b-b-b," goes Ralph, and away he goes on the "motorized" motorcycle, finding the freedom he has always yearned for in his young life. Now Ralph has endless opportunities for adventure, sometimes fun, sometimes scary, but always exciting. This is a special book. Kids adore it, and adults frequently love this journey back into childhood fantasy. I know I do!

I finally picked up "Sharpe's Rifles" months after having the series recommended to me by a friend. I wish I hadn't waited. Although I read a lot of military fiction, I have never read anything about the Napoleonic wars. Cornwell actually brings the battles to life, from the cries of the dying and wounded to the smell of the smoke of the battlefield. All of the cahracters come to life, and are exemplary of the kind of lives lived by the soldiers and officers of the era. It is obvious that Cornwell did his homework here.

Richard Sharpe is a well developed character, an everyman that developed not only into a super warrior, but also into a superb leader of warriors.

In this novel the author gets right down to the story, and wastes no time getting to the heart of the story. The writing is straightforward and clean.

Highly recommended

Sharpe's Rifles by Bernard Cornwell is an exciting roller-coaster ride of battles and army life as seen through the eyes of Richard Sharpe, a newly made lieutenant in the English infantry. During the early 1800s most officers in the English infantry were of noble birth, however Lt. Sharpe, a former enlisted man comes from the ranks. He receives little respect from the men in his command and even less from his peers. The setting is in Spain during the French-Napoleonic invasions. The English (and Lt. Sharpe) are supporting the freedom fighters of Spain.

His army has been defeated and the French are pushing the English towards the coast of Spain and into Portugal. Through a series of mishaps he finds himself under the loose command of a Spanish Major who is intent upon flying a holy banner from a major city deep within the French area of control. Sharpe must win the respect of his men, fight an invincible French Colonel, and vie for the attentions of a beautiful English missionary.

I admit that I was a fan of the PBS series before I read the books. However, when you start this book you will have a hard time putting it down. Cornwell writes in plain English and his dialog is great.

'Sharpe's Rifles' is the first of Bernard Cornwell's orginal Richard Sharpe series and is a wonderful start. Here we meet for the first time the maverick British officer Richard Sharpe and his tough-as-nails companion Sergeant Harper. The story takes place during the British retreat from Spain in 1809. French victory seems certain. Lieutnant Sharpe is seperated from his unit and forced to command a rag tag company of riflemen, who have little love for thier new leader, though enemy territory back to the British lines. On top of these worries, Spanish partisans insist that the British escort them to a remote village where they believe victory over the French is possible. This is a novel that takes you back in time to the desperate days in the struggle against Napoleon. Even if historical novels aren't your thing the adventure alone is worth the read.

This autobiographical condemnation of the south's Peculiar Institution puts a face on the suffering of the enslaved. American history is full of accounts of slavery which tend to broad overviews of the institution, whereas this book is written by an escaped slave who does not flinch at sharing every detail of her miserable life. Unlike other narratives which distorted the slave's voice through the perspective of the interviewers/authors who were notorious for exaggerating the uneducated slaves' broken english, this book is largely Ms. Jacobs' own words. She was taught to read and write as a child by a kind mistress, so she was able to put her thoughts on paper with clarity that surprised many. Ms. Jacobs had an editor, but this book seems to be her unfiltered view of the world.

It is one thing to hear about how slaveholders took liberties with female slaves, it is quite another to read in stark detail about women being commanded to lay down in fields, young girls being seduced and impregnated and their offspring sold to rid the slaveholder of the evidence of his licentiousness. The author talks about jealous white women, enraged by their husbands' behavior, taking it out on the hapless slaves. The white women were seen as ladies, delicate creatures prone to fainting spells and hissy fits whereas the Black women were beasts of burden, objects of lust and contempt simultaneously. Some slave women resisted these lustful swine and were beaten badly because of it. It was quite a conundrum. To be sure, white women suffered under this disgusting system too, though not to the same degree as the female slaves who had no one to protect them and their virtue. Even the notion of a slave having virtue is mocked. The author rejected the slaveholder's advances and dared to hope that she would be allowed to marry a free black man who loved and respected her. Not only was she not allowed to marry him, she was forbidden to see him or speak to him again.

The author shows us the depth of a mother's love as she suffers mightily to see that her children are not also brought under the yoke of slavery. Though she was able to elude her odious master, she does take up with some other white man in hopes that he would be able to buy her freedom. Her "owner" refuses to sell her and tells her that she and her children are the property of his minor daughter. Her lover seems kind enough as he claims his children and offers to give them his name, and he did eventually buy them, though he failed to emancipate them to spare them from a life of forced servitude. Ms. Jacobs noted that slavery taught her not to trust the promises of white men. Having lived in town most of her life, Ms. Jacobs is sent to the plantation of her master's cruel son to broken in after she continues to refuses his sexual advances. She is resigned to this fate until she learns that her children -- who were never treated like slaves -- were to be brought to the plantation also. It is then that she takes flight.

After enduring 7-years of confinement in cramped quarters under the roof of her grandmother's house, the author escapes to the North which is not quite the haven she imagined. Still, it is better than the south, and she makes friends who buy her freedom leaving her both relieved and bitter that she is still seen as property to be bought and sold like livestock. In New York Ms. Jacobs is reunited with her children and a beloved brother who'd escaped a few years ago while accompanying his master -- her former lover -- to the free states.

There is no fairytale ending to this story because the author endures plenty of abuse and uncertainty even after she makes it to the North. She is hunted down by the relentless slaveowners who were aided by the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 and "The bloodhounds of the North." This is a wrenching account of this shameful period of American history, and should be required reading for all.

First published in 1861, this book is much more than a narrative about slavery; it addresses many issues of gender as well. To escape the philandering intentions of her master, and to try to win freedom for her children, Harriet Jacobs spent seven years hidden away in a garret over her grandmother's house, three feet high at its tallest point with almost no air or light, with only glimpses of her children to sustain her courage. Until the 1980's, this book was presumed by most scholars to be a work of fiction created by a white abolitionist, but Jean Yellin's groundbreaking research brought the real Harriet Jacobs to life. The book has been published several times since the 1960's, often in inexpensive paperback versions that are much cheaper than this edition (2000). However, I'd recommend either this edition (which includes the short slave narrative published by Harriet's brother John, A True Tale of Slavery) or an earlier edition edited by Yellin if you want the full historical background on the book itself.

Intended to convince northerners -- particularly women -- of the rankness of Slavery, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl presents a powerful autobiography and convincing writing that reads like a gripping novel but is organized and argued like an essay.

Incidents follows the "true story" (its authenticity is doubted in some places) of Linda [Jacobs uses a pseudonym] who is born into the shackles of slavery and yearns for freedom. She lives with a depraved slave master who dehumanizes her, and a mistress who mistreats her. As the novel progresses, Linda becomes increasingly starved of freedom and resolves to escape, but Linda finds that even escaping presents its problems.

But Incidents is more than just a gripping narration of one woman's crusade for freedom, and is rather an organized attack on Slavery, intended to convince even the most apathetic of northerners. And in this too, Incidents succeeds. The writing is clear, and Jacobs' use of rhetorical strategy to preserve integrity is astonishing.

Well written, convincing, entertaining, Incidents is an amazing book.

Sex, Dead Dogs, and Me - The Juliette Journals, published by Abique Books, and written by Ed Williams a.k.a. Balboa (online) is a good ole boy read reminiscent of Lewis Grizzard's down home stories. Add his book to your list of "must haves!" You'll laugh at the chapter about his vasectomy. (Not usually a hilarious incident, is it?) You'll savor his love for his family and come away impressed by the values he holds dear. Plus, you'll learn all about the Brotherhood - and why the members of B.T.O. were destined to become full-fledged members. Some of you may recall that Juliette, Georgia is the setting for Fanny Flagg's Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe. Ed Williams puts that town on the map again. Sex, Dead Dogs, and Me - The Juliette Journals has lots of the same Southern charm, with his own special mixture of warmth and humor added as well.

This book was as a gift from the most beautiful lady in Alabama and I want to thank her. This book was a great pressure reliever. I have not laughed so hard in a long time--actually brought tears to my eyes--it was GREAT!! Each Chapter is it's own little short story. My favorites were Stink Perfume, The Vapors, The Brotherhood, and Porno Movies. The way Ed tells each story puts you right there it is so easy to visualize the situation you are laughing right along with him. I actually felt like I was right there participating in the particle jokes. As a matter of fact the experiences Ed writes about are similar situation I've experienced. I found myself recalling some of my own similar experiences that added to my laughter. You don't have to be from Georgia to appreciate this book. Although Ed writes about things that happened to Ed in a small Georgia town but no matter where you live you can relate because of similar experiences. This is a very entertaining book to read. You too will find yourself laughing resulting in tears forming in your eyes too. Again thanks for the gift I love it!!

You've got to read this book!! The author is as genuine and down-home as it gets...what a wonderful, unique kind of reading. It's really unusual and for all ages, teens and up. The realistic humor and real-life situations are second to none! I feel like I know the "brotherhood" after reading this adventurous and hilarious book. Would love to hear MORE from the author, Ed Williams. What a masterpiece!!! A MUST READ!! I enjoyed it very much!!

I first read Go Down, Moses in grad school but am now returning to it after 3 years. Faulkner explores his usual themes--memory, history. black/white/Indian relations, the South, slavery, ownership, etc.--in a way that's just as compelling as in Absalom, Absalom or Sound and the Fury. It's a collection of short stories which I believe are meant to be read in order, unlike other collections. We get different viewpoints from different characters at different ages. When you're tempted to give up in the middle of a 5-page-long sentence, don't. Fascinating

I read Go Down Moses in 1996 before taking a trip to Mississippi. I had never read Faulkner before and had only one criterion for picking a book of his: it had to take place in the mythical Yoknapatawpha County. I picked this one off the library shelf.

For any non-southern American whose sole exposure to what happened there was from history books, this should forever shatter the pat preconceptions and simplistic black and white (no pun intended!) formulas they were taught.

The book plunges you into a vast panorama of ambiguities and contradictions. It was clear to me from the first paragraph that Faulkner was a genius. In the whole history of literature, he surely stands among a select few at the very pinnacle of greatness.

Go Down Moses is a tremendous struggle to get through. Some parts are straightforward and easy, but there are others that you can't hope to make literal sense of. You're bombarded by its twisted grammar. Its frantic confusion. Its endlessly unresolved sentences. But through these, Faulkner ultimately conveys the pain of history -- past and present. The emotion of that pain seems more real to him than the specific incidents it sprang from. Why else would a book begun in pre-Civil War Mississippi -- entirely skip it -- picking up again a generation later?

This book is about the South. Having read it, Faulkner walked beside me every step of the way I took through his state. But this book also has a sub-theme that should not be overlooked. Faulkner was a profound environmentalist, although sharply contrasted with how we usually think of that term. Hunters don't much fit the mold of environmentalism -- and Faulkner was an avid one of that lot. So, in that sense, along with all the sociological, he can shake you up pretty good! Go Down Moses contains some of the most wrenching descriptions you could hope to find on the loss of wilderness. There is nothing ambiguous in his portrayal of that loss. Faulkner may confound everything you thought you believed of Southern sociology, but in an environmental sense, he leaves no room for confusion. Leave those trees standing!

This book will grip you; I can't imagine it having a lesser effect. Like all truly great art, it should change you forever.

Please, please do not pass over the other fine stories in GO DOWN, MOSES and go straight to "The Bear." This gem means much more when illuminated by the other parts of the text, and only by reading the entire book can you fully understand the meaning of Ike's repudiation of the McCaslin land. I recently completed a Faulkner course, and of all of his "genius" novels--"As I Lay Dying," "Light in August," "Go Down, Moses," "The Sound and the Fury," and "Absalom! Absalom!"--I believe that this one has the strongest emotional core. Read the whole thing; your experience will be much richer.