This is a great book that mixes many recipes with short stories about the history of and antics that go on at International Chili Society contests. Also includes a number of "celebrity" recipes and many others. Would get five stars, but there are no pictures of the finished dishes to guide you by--I like to know what what I just tried to cook at least looks correct!

Anthologies are like boxes of chocolates: some pieces are good, some are excellent, some you might bite and put back, and some just do not interest you. Some pieces appeal to everyone, some do not. The piece that one person rejects may be another's favorite. However, if you are going to find those pieces that suit your taste just right, you must buy the whole box. "The Cry of an Occasion" is just such an assortment, containing work by nineteen writers, all southern. Not every piece will interest every reader equally, but there will probably be a delicious handful for each.

As might be expected of a "southern" anthology, religion, family, sense of place and race are themes that weave through the various stories; however, while some themes may be regional, the scope and treatment of these themes are universal.

"The Encyclopedia Daniel" by Fred Chappell is an odd little story with an Edgar Allen Poe twist. "Feeling Good, Feeling Fine" is a by George Garrett is a quick, broad-stroked vignette of a southern institution - the family relation who isn't quite right. "Sim Denny" is a painful story about an elderly black man who first attempts, unsuccessfully, to ignore the civil rights movement, and then attempts, equally unsuccessfully, to join it. My personal favorite is William Hoffman's examination of family dysfunction, "The Secret Garden" - a tale whose several narrators offer their observations about the central character, while revealing their own roles as enablers.

Such is the variety of this sampler, there should not be any reader who does not find at least several pieces to satisfy his interests.

A brisk, but not too brief account of Washington and the times surrounding him. Alden touches on most every event and aspect concerning the subject: from Shay's Rebellion to Martha's disposition, from the Hamilton-Jefferson Feud to his agricultural experiments. It is objective without trying to debunk a great man. Only the cursory discussion on slavery does the junvenile yankee condescention surface (Whose ships were involved in the slave trade even after the Virginians pushed through its ban via the Constitution? Yankees ie the Great Hypocrites of All Time.) It is, however, a thorough and interesting biography and highly recommended.

McMurry writes a solid bio of Hood in this book. McMurry traces the key turning points,in his mind, of Hood's career. In doing this he delves into the battle of Chickamauga, the Seven Days' Battles, the Atlanta Campaign, and the Tennessee Campaign of 1864, and Hood's courtship of Buck Preston while hardly mentioning the battles of Antietam or Gettysburg, in which Hood played a key role. Even so, it is still a very good book with some new views of Hood. One thing I found annoying was when McMurry dealt with the Atlanta Campaign he was very harsh and critical of J.E. Johnston (who he obviously dislikes) while basically claiming Hood could do no wrong during this campaign. Still, it is a interesting and good book, while being an easy read and giving some new views on Hood the man and Hood the general.

This book is large format, and can serve as both a coffee-table book and a photographic reference for those interested in the RGS. It's got a wonderful painting on the cover, and several more throughout the text.

Although the book includes some historical snippets, it's main appeal are the large-format black & white photographs. The format lets you really peer into the photos, getting a feel for the environment and people of that day.

The book is organized by the eras of the RGS' history (early, mid, late), and there's ample coverage of most parts and most of the equipment on the line.

I recommend the book for anyone interested in the RGS, Colorado history, or just looking at photos of a working steam railroad from the 'old days'. It's a wonderful resource, nicely printed and bound, and full of interesting stuff to look at.

On the whole, Ruppert & Fox have developed a very useful, easy to read field guide. Indeed, this is probably the best general purpose field guide for Southeast marine invertebrates available (it is also far better than the comparable Peterson guides). This guide is perfect for people who are just beginning to explore the marine environment, or for people who do not necessarily need to unequivically identify organisms to the species level. Overall, most hobby-level naturalists will find this an excellent addition to their libraries.

That said, however, no field guide is without flaws and this one has several. First, when you attempt to identify organisms, you find that taxa are arranged in a haphazard fashion. In a (poor) attempt to make ID's easy, the authors have forsaken the traditional taxonomic organization of phyla and have ordered them according to general morphological appearance. Second, with the descriptions provided, it is often very difficult to distinguish among con-geners. Finally, the authors have included lots "just so" natural history information. Although this certainly spices up the reading, many of the stories are unfounded. As an example: the authors claim that the Sargassum Sea Slug (Scyllaea pelagica) feeds on the floats of sargassum weed, which then provide the slug with buoyancy. This is not true. The "floats" inside Scyllaea are actually camoflaged hepatic organs.

Although these problems don't detract from the general usefulness of the guide, they are distracting, and at times misleading. Overall, though, this is an excellent resource and a must for all Atlantic (USA) marine naturalists.

I read this book in it's spanish edition, and I found it great, Jennifer Blake has always been one of my favorite authors and her works has been always good. The way she presents the characters has always been one of my favorite things about her work, because the regular guys are the ones that always do the right things, and then giving the highborns a lesson :).

This book provides very detailed accounts of the history of Whitehaven. The book starts with the building of the mansion and follows its history through abandonment, restoration and its current use as a rest area. The best part is the wonderful history in pictures. The book includes photos of the mansion and its original occupants, the pitiful condition it was found it, the restoration in progress and the finally the mansion once it was restored to all it's grandeur.

Richard Goodman's year in France produced more than a beautiful garden, it also produced a wonderful book! Needing a break from the hustle and bustle of New York, Goodman and his girlfriend Iggy rent a house in a tiny village in France for a whole year to just get away. Wanting to connect with this town and its' people, Goodman offers his help to those who will take it. In doing so, he comes in close contact with the land itself which leads him to decide he will grow his own garden.

What follows is this man's love affair with the people, the land and the simple act of creating and nurturing life in his small plot of earth. Wonderfully told in beautiful prose, Goodman's story will leave you feeling happy and content and, oddly enough, wanting to grow your own garden although perhaps in your own backyard.

Richard Goodman and his Dutch girlfriend Iggy rent a two hundred year old stone house in the south of France for a year. Located in a small village of about 200 without a cafe, store or any kind of city center, they have a tough time figuring out how to connect with the locals. They do make one set of friends--a Spanish couple also living the expat life there.

But finally Richard decides to trade his labor for some firewood. Through working in the fields he begins to mix with the villagers. He is very much struck by Jules, a handsome 25 year old, and through that relationship eventually secures a small plot of land and determines to grow a vegetable garden.

And that really is the focus of the book. A longtime city dweller, Richard harkens back to the Michigan gardens of his youth and enjoys discovering the adult joys of gardening. Sometimes the writing gets to be a bit much--pretty sappy. And, if the truth be told, Richard isn't really very good at growing his garden. But the rivalries among the other village gardeners, the disparate and conflicting advice he receives and the hours spent in the sun tending his garden make this a light, likable read. And truly any book set in the south of France makes for a relaxing summer read!

This delightful short novel explores the author (an American) and his girlfriend's endeavors to cultivate friends and fruit in the south of France. I found myself walking alongside Richard as he introduced himself to his first real friend, Monsier Vasquez, as he binged on plant buying, as he picked his first vegetable. His description of the prank in which one of the least likely villagers placed perfect red, ripe tomatoes in his garden in early June was hilarious. For anyone wanting to experience living in a small French village this book vividly plants you there!

I did not attend an SEC school but consider myself a passive follower. I do live in Memphis which was featured in the book and am subjected to how ingrained football culture is to the South. This book does an exceptional job of relaying this and while the author is a fan, he covers some of the taboo areas and allows the reader to make some judgements.

The writer discloses early that his father played football and he played baseball at Tennessee. I think he did a fair job of not being overly biased although clearly there are more stories about Tennessee and semi-negative stories about their chief rival, Alabama. Be forewarned that this book does not cover all schools but instead focuses on selected short stories. Schools covered are Tn, Fl, Ala., Ga., Vandy, Auburn and LSU with at least one featured chapter.

Exceptional chapters covered Steve Spurrier and Phil Fulmer, coaches at Fl and TN. I learned a lot about football from these chapters and came away with greater respect for both men. The Florida/Tn and Florida/GA rivalry are covered in depth and present a great backdrop of what players, fans and coaches endure at an SEC football weekend. Also, the chapters on the Vandy player and Vandy coach give you greater respect for their outlook on football.

The chapters that create the most controversy will be on recruiting. He follows the recruiting of a nationally ranked Memphis player, Albert Means. Needless to say, it is not too positive with allusions of cheating but no real proof. The most controversial chapter is 6 where he highlights a wealthy Memphis businessman, Logan Young, who is supposedly buying players for Alabama, and Roy Adams, a talkative, obsessed fan for Tennessee who likes to get close to players, real close. This chapter highlights everything that is wrong with college football with these grown men's obsession with 18 year old boys. Clearly Logan Young loses the writer's popularity vote as the Alabama fan who supposedly buys players. But here is where the writer's research fails him. Mr. Adams, the other fan, who clearly enjoys being the center of attention, brags about being close to players and can't understand why past TN coaches have been rude to him about his meddling with players. I'm surprised the author did not explore this issue and question what this individual's "real" agenda is. He admits to having players over to his house and it wouldn't take much research to find this out. As stated in the book, the writer took a lot of his information from Internet chat lines. Maybe a little more time should have been spent interviewing people in Memphis about this individual and players that had been to his house. Logan Young would still have come across poorly but I suspect most readers would be outraged by the other gentleman's interests.

The writer does a good job of trying to act like an impartial observer and while it's clear that he loves football, in the last chapter he touches on how this obsession can be negative for fans and players. It's a business. And all for "Bragging Rights" so one fan can say for a short period of time, "I'm better than you."

The author, and many others, will argue that the SEC is *the* conference for college football. It is a conference of strong rivalries and tough attitude. It's also, as Ernsberger looks at, a conference of athletes who happen to be students, rather than the collegiate student-athlete. He brings up the warts - problems with recruiting, low graduation rates, questionable ethics with athletic departments overseeing athlete tutoring. But these are more of a bookend to the story - a story of rivalry, of politics, of winning above everything else. This is where the heart of the book is, and where Ernsberger comes across as the privelaged observer, rather than someone with an axe to grind. He's not in awe of everything, but he's not out to rip back the veneer of college football either.

Arguably, the book does have it's leanings. Only about half the conference is really explored with many of the schools getting the short shrift and barely a mention. But if you have never been to a big SEC rivalry game, he tries to capture the mood both inside and outside the stadium. You see the lead up to the Auburn-Alabama game (though strangely, he never seems to refer to it by it's common moniker of the Iron Bowl), and the Cocktail Party (Georgia vs. Florida). One of the strengths of the book is that he spends time with all level of participants in this spectacle - the players themselves, the caching staff, the boosters, the administration, the fans and the alumni. The picture drawn shows that everyone is partially to blame for the state the conference is in.

As a passive spectator of the SEC especially after moving to Atlanta, Ernsberger drew together a lot of what swirls around into a coherent package. Everything you need to know? No. A damning expose? No. An interesting overview - yes. This is why you want to read the book.

This is a rollicking, rip-roaring romp through America's toughest football conference. Even rabid fans will be interested in the author's access to off-the-beaten-path aspects of SEC football. There is little attempt to describe game action but instead Ernsberger goes into the locker rooms, film studies, and parking lots of conference schools. There is a little emphasis on Tennessee(the author is an alum) and Auburn(perhaps the best storyline) but even Bama fans will enjoy this book. The only real criticism is that Ernsberger makes too many factual errors. Dates, names, and scores are frequently wrong. If facts pertaining to your team are incorrectly reported; how can you trust the reports on other teams, players, or coaches?