Robert Morgan's collection of eleven short stories spans over 200 years of American history. Each story is told in first-person point of view. Five of the stories are told by women, and the narrators range in age from about twelve to late eighties. Several of these stories are so well-written, they are sure to be included in short story anthologies. Morgan varies his style of writing throughout the collection, and he gives glimpses of life in the North Carolina mountains from pre-colonial days to the present. Along the way, he shows that though times may have changed, people remain pretty much the same. Two stories are especially powerful. "Watershed" and "Mack" were two of my favorites. "Watershed" gives a unique look at life in the mountains when settlers were still challenging the Indians over the land. "Mack" is set in the present and is narrated by an elderly man who suffers from a very weak heart. His story focuses on what he has learned from life and from his dog Mack. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has interest an in history, the South, and people in general.

Ten Thousand Goodbyes, an autobiography on the life of Robert M. Morgan, treats the reader to a luscious story smorgasbord of Oregon and the Morgan Clan. The feast includes historical tidbits about Portland, Sauvie Island and Morgan's Landing; the River Boats of the Columbia and Willamette; pioneering, the age of transportation (and innovation!); and poetry and pose in praise of family.

The surprise dessert for me was the connection to my own family tree, with anecdotes of the Hyland clan, another of the pioneer families of Oregon.

Ten Thousand Goodbyes, Lifetime Reflections of a Traveling Man, by Robert M. Morgan. Copyright 1997 Morgan Family Trust. Published by Premiere Editions International, Inc. ISBN 09633818-9-X. Available through Amazon.com

Tiny Talks is a book filled with approx. 75 two-page stories or vignettes about thirteen fictional characters who live in Tiny Town. The stories are about everyday happenings and each contains a moral truth or information about God's character or Jesus or the Bible. For instance, in one, a little girl gets upset because she can't draw within the lines but her teacher talks to her about patience and how God is patient with us so we should be patient with ourselves too. Each story ends with a two-sentence prayer and is accompanied by a single Bible verse. They touch upon obedience, thankfulness, honesty, helping others, and so on, all in a way that kids can easily relate to. The introduction calls the book a "user-friendly guide to daily devotions for families with small children." Even though there are no color pictures -- there is only a single black and white drawing per story -- my four-year old loves to be read stories from this book each night before bedtime.

"Whose Right to Bear Arms Did the Second Amendment Protect?" edited by Saul Cornell and Robert E. Shalhope is a collection of essays and journal articles debating the interpretations of the Second Amendment by top notch historians on the subject. The book encourage debate and therefore has a well balanced assortment of articles covering the full spectrum of debate concerning the Second Amendment.

Books from the "Historians at Work Series" are designed to encourage debate and deeper thinking on a particular historiographic issue in American history. Books from the "Historians at Work Series" are designed for upper-level undergraduate and graduate level American history courses. This being said, its not an introductory text. The authors of the articles go directly into their subjects, with little significant background information. Therefore, you need to have an historical base-level to work from. Nonetheless, it is an excellent tool for students, scholars and general readers of American history.

Editions in the "Historians at Work" publish the entire article or essay, introduce the author and most importantly: it includes all endnotes--a rarity for books that are collections of articles/essays on a related topic.

Overall, an excellent representation on early American historical scholarship.

ADDED NOTE: The final chapter in this book, writen by Michael Bellesiles and his book were later found to be full of misrepresentation and misconduct in research. He has since lost his award and has resigned from his position @ Emory University.

Some funny and well-taken points on MCO's. But when I read it, I couldn't help but wonder if the author might be just as abusive to his patients as the MCO's he takes hits at. Is the author using this forum to serve the people or himself?

The author is brilliant and witty in his illustrations of the insanity that exists in health care today. A must read!

The author focuses our attention on the inherent problems of business-oriented people making decisions on our medical care. With humor and insight into patient concerns, Bransfield takes us through the various pitfalls that managed care can present to the consumer - also popularly known as the patient! The problems of confidentiality, right of consumers to make informed decisions, and the place of the profit motive in medicine are addressed. I consider this a MUST READ for anyone who relies on health insurance to pay their bills.

The book gives a good summary of different investment vehicles out there to beginner and somewhat experienced investors. However, the book does push the idea of investing through Dean Witter a little too much especially in the beginning chapters. Not bad as a reference book although the Motley Fool books are a little more amusing.

I loved this book! It gave me a complete overview of different investment markets, and how to capitalize on them. This book taught me how important it is to understand that starting your investments today is one of the biggest factors to my financial security. I think this book is great for someone who wants a good foundation of the knowledge on Wall Street and other investment areas.

For those people with little or no investment experience, I think this is an appropriate book. It's fairly comprehensive but doesn't go into detail. I would keep it as a handy reference rather than as an investment guide (not enough investment advice).

I found this novel to be a wonderful read despite it being a little slow going at the start.

Julie Harmon Richards is a young woman, at the turn of the 20th century, learning to deal with life and love in the Appalachian mountains. She marries Hank at the tender age of 17 and begins to learn the true meaning of hardship and suffering. They leave her family behind and start fresh in Gap Creek. Julie and Hank must fend for themselves in every aspect of their lives. They face con artists, death, floods, fire and childbirth. Starvation and loneliness also enter into the picture.

Julie has always known hardship and hard work, her work ethic is unbelievably strong. Her unending courage and determination throughout the book inspired me. She grows from a young girl into a young woman at a fast pace during the first year of her marriage to Hank. Her love for him never wavers and in the process her spirituality grows as well.

The ending left me wanting more ~ did they ever find the happiness that they so deserved? Will life get easier for this pair who struggled with so much? Mr. Morgan leaves it to us the reader to decipher the true ending...in my mind it's a happy one. They get to start anew.

With gripping storytelling and a strong and endearing main character, Robert Morgan's Gap Creek doesn't just tell the reader about the 1800's, it draws the reader into the pages of a world that is very different yet psychologically identical to the modern day.
The protagonist, Julie Harmon, is an extremely hard worker with a patient and sensitive soul. During Julie's struggle to maintain her marriage and her home, almost any reader can identify with her complicated feelings towards other people: common emotions of hatred,responsibility, anxiety and love. It is through the first person narration that Robert Morgan so vividly illustrates her thoughts.
Gap Creek allows readers of any age to fully appreciate modern technology. The sweat-provoking and often gruesome tasks of American life were just routine for growing families at the turn of the century. Even medicines and doctors weren't efficient enough to save people from most diseases, and childbirth as displayed in the book through amazing prose was much more complicated and painful than it is today.
Robert Morgan gives his characters a growing insight to life, and death. While Julie and her husband strive to understand and appreciate each other, they also strive to find themselves religiously. They use prayer and forgiveness to their advantage as their spirituality grows, although like a lot of people it takes many moments of doubt before their true beliefs set in.
Gap Creek is an eternal record of human nature. All of the elements of life: the struggles against the wilderness, clashing personalities between different people, and the happiness and hardships of starting a life with a spouse in a new place allow Gap Creek to grasp the attention of anyone fascinated with the lifestyles of the late 1800's, and anyone fascinated with life in general.

This story of a young couple's hardships in the turn-of-the-century Appalachians gave me appreciation for our modern conveniences. I found myself yearning, however, for the honest hard work and satisfaction of living off the land. Morgan's style was crude at times--maybe intentionally--but I've read other novels that captured that same gritty character with a bit more passion. When Julie's newlywed sister comes to visit, for example, Morgan describes their laughter in every other paragraph. I got the point after the first two times. He could have plumbed the emotion and history with more feeling and depth...or maybe just more writing elbow-grease. But let's face it: this book works its way under your skin, demanding attention, or at least a reaction. Julie and Hank's relationship seems devoted, but more guarded than modern relationships. In the end, I enjoyed the coming together of the family, even through tragedy. The story had a message of hope, asking us to love others more than ourselves. Through its simple beauty and spartan writing, Gap Creek eventually made its way into my heart.

as above, it serves its purpose if that's what you want

This book is a good source on idioms in Navajo, and it also has lots of example sentences illustrating the idioms (as well as illustrating all sort of other things on the way). This should be quite useful to intermediate and advanced students.

However, this is /not/ for beginning students -- they will find this book basically unusable.

I advise beginning students to buy Goossen's intro book (/Dine Bizaad/), and to buy one or both of the other big Navajo dictionaries (/Analytical Lexicon of Navajo/ and /The Navajo Language: A Grammar and Colloquial Dictionary/, both by Young and Morgan).

Very disappointed in this book because it was not what was advertised. It should have been titled "ultimate CHRISTIAN resource." If it had, I would not have wasted my money. I agree with another reviewer who says that this book is not something they can use because of its religious nature. I wish I had read that review before because I would not have bought the book. Perhaps it is a good marketing concept to title the book a "contemporary resource" ... so as to mislead and increase sales, but instead it has just angered and frustrated this reader and I will avoid this publisher in the future.

I am a Corporate Trainer & am always in search of a poignant story and the like to add to a presentation. Although this book is well organized & quite extensive most every quote is directed to the Christian perspective. The book is one of the best that I have seen with this type of subject matter, but I will not be able to use it in my profession because of the religious content. I have in fact passed this book on to my sister whom is involved in Christian Retreats and is a speaker at those events. I also showed the book to my pastor and he will be ordering one shortly. Well organized, extensive on the subject matter and excellent stories abound inside. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for this type of materiel.

Robert J. Morgan has done an outstanding job of collecting and organizing stories, quotations and anecdotes into an indispensable tool for the public speaker. This book is especially helpful for the preacher or teacher, but it would also be great just to read! Each selection is followed by space to record the date, place and occasion of when it was used.

This book would be a wonderful gift for anyone who does public speaking or teaching.

THIS ROCK was my first encounter with Robert Morgan. I had heard many great things about GAP CREEK so my book club decided THIS ROCK would be a great book for our next selection.

Unfortunately not many of us enjoyed it.

The main character is a farm boy named Muir. He has led a rough life with a bully for an older brother. His mother plays a significant role in his decision makings. He is beyond confused about what he wants to do with his life. Yet he makes many decision throughout the book to escape everyday life. Not all of his decisions are foolproof.

Moody, the older bully brother, is also a significant character. Muir appears to hate him on the outside. But from the inside I felt it was different. He looked up to Moody and cared for him greatly. Moody and Muir go through the book dealing with personal problems, and family problems.

The ending was not what I expected. I was not too happy with the abruptness of the finale. The book felt as if it was missing a true story line. There were many aspects of Muir's life discussed but not enough substance to really show the reader what you needed to see in order to feel for him. Something was missing. I just cannot put my finger on it.

I must admit that Gap Creek was the first book by Robert Morgan that I have read. I became of a fan immediately. His story line is as multilayered as his characters. In This Rock, one brother, Muir, struggles to find himself. He seems to be heading for a life lived in the word and serving his God. The other brother, Moody, seems to do nothing more than a little bootlegging. Moody wants to lose himself. He suffers from some deep hurt we are never privy to. Robert Morgan takes these two characters and wraps a novel around them. Two brothers as different as hot and cold, living a basic life filled with the struggle to survive and yet their lives seem to be so much richer that ours.
Other characters, Hank and Julia from Gap Creek make an appearance. It was nice to see their progress. Ginny, Muir and Moody's mother is a strong woman left to get by on her own after her husband dies.
I won't give anymore away. The book is an interesting read. It appeals to the intellect and the heart. If you're looking for a techno thriller you better keep looking. This Rock isn't for you. If you're looking to be touched emotionally and spiritually, then you won't be disappointed.

I heard Robert Morgan read from "This Rock" at a book festival and it only enhanced the story in my mind. The voice of the characters came vividly to life. The story's background, complete with historical tidbits and Morgan's family folklore mixed in, make "This Rock" a tale of pathos and wisdom.

Is "This Rock" a sequel to "Gap Creek"? Yes and no. "Gap Creek" is one of those books that stuck with me. I cared about the characters of Hank and Julie and their plight. Yes, "This Rock" does interweave bits and pieces of Hank and Julie's lives with the story of new characters. What a pleasant surprise to run across these treasured fictional friends, to see where life has taken them. But, no, this book does not serve strictly as a sequel. For the most part, it's not as dramatically depressing either--though it does have a few painful moments.

"This Rock" stands solidly alone, an ode to the people who have built this great country--and some of those who have corrupted it, whether bootleggers or religious bigots. Using the dual viewpoints of young Muir and his mother Ginny, the story recounts the troubles of a family in the first half of the twentieth century. Ginny is a widow, raising three kids. Her view sheds light on the emotional struggle of a mother hoping for the best for her children. Muir's view is self-centered and driven, although it begins to taper as life humbles him.

Young Muir's dream is to be a preacher. His brother Moody has no real aspirations, save to sneak out and bootleg with the local ruffians. Both brothers make choices that will have negative consequences, but, in the author's soulful and honest manner, the book manages to bring the light of redemption through the darkness. "This Rock" moves slowly on the surface, while underneath the struggles of the human heart churn and race. I found myself pulled downstream, caught up in the story, hoping that Muir would achieve his dream and that Moody would find rest for his soul.

Robert Morgan caps off his story with events that are both predictable and surprising. As in "Gap Creek," he offers hope at the end of the day--a hope that is formed from the fires of hard work and deep pain. While other writers tend to throw out shallow promises, Morgan's writing and his characters deliver something richer and much more rewarding.

"This Rock" is worth holding onto.