I read the book straight through after getting it. But did not read it in the same order of the chapters. It is written like a quilt allowing you to read what you want, randomly as you would look at a quilt's intricate details. Yet no matter how read, you end up with a larger perspective and pattern that gives you much greater meaning and understanding.

It is nice for Janisse to allow the reader the freedom of finding ones own perspective and interests when reading the book. It also makes sharing the experience of the book with friend and family easier.

My friend read the chapter of the writing group, right after coming from her own writing group. In a stone faced way she put the book down after reading the chapter, and burst out laughing. There was a part I read about Janisse's father and her in a big fight that made me cry at a moment in the interchange.

It would make good reading for someone contemplating going home to a rural community, or for someone who never dreamed of doing so. It is a poetic story of family and home and geography.

Janisse weaves very different personal yet universal experiences with family and friends, rural community, and natural and cultural landscapes into a geographic quilt, giving an emergent property of perspective, that is difficult to see without being layed out in full view like a picture - and with the benefit of context in time and space and emotion.

There are many reasons that a person goes back to their origins.

Janisse goes back much like a wild animal that has been expatriated from a geographic area. She comes back to rediscover the origins if birth, and fill to fill gaps left in her imagination and community.

What is nice is that she finds a niche with intelligence, and sensitivity to community and region. I can imagine native species like panther and wolves having a more difficult time rediscovering their original landscapes, even though they might play an equal or more important role. Reintroducing fire to the pineland landscpae is also difficult, but necessary.

Janisse comes back as quite as she can, and slowly finds a role. Not a dominant role but one which fills a gap. She is more like the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker than a panther or wolve or fire, being sensitive and fragile; and having an infinity for home and old growth and wild romote places. At the same time providing intelligence and energy that those in the rural communities and cities can benefit from.

Rural communities in the south need natives, especially those that can fill important roles. Too many rural areas export not only there natural resources, but also their most valuable human resources. They become vulnerable to exotics who completely transform and exploit the community without consideration of the integrity of local community or ecology and its needs. They come without understanding place. Much of what remains is remanents of a highly exploited cultural and ecological resources.

What is nice is that, like the coming home of an Ivory Billed Woodpecker Janisse helps facilitate the rediscovery of interest in rural community assets like schools and remenants of wild places, like pines and rivers that are critical assets of the geography.

Janisse uses her skills with those of the locals to reclaim geography and recreate the imgination of place. She comes not like a conquering hero, but like wild card pattern in quilt that catches your eye, without dominating your thought. She makes you think about important things. She offers an alternative future senaarios for geography that preserves and rediscover inherient values, while helping to create new values. This is in harsh contrast to to those that exploit rural landscapes without the imagination of cultural and ecological values that have existed, but have been largely surpressed.

Beautifully written book that appeals to a wide range of people--so it would be a great gift for Father's Day or for anyone's birthday. I laughed out loud many times.

Janisse Ray is passionate about the environment, most specifically that part of it in southeast Georgia. Her environment is mostly the natural world--the longleaf pine forest (the remnants thereof), the Altamaha River--but also the human world in the small town of Baxley, her family farmstead, her father's junkyard. She left these surroundings to go to college, first in north Georgia and then in Montana. She "took a chance on home" (the book's subtitle) when she returned to Baxley with her young son, determined to make a life for them both. She demonstrates that ability to observe, think, and then put into words those observations and thoughts is a far greater treasure than glitz and glamour.

This book conveys the words of a young Union soldier who was captured and taken to the Southern prison they called Andersonville. This detailed account taken from the diary of Charles Hopkins tells a story of survival and horror. It makes you imagine trying to survive in a disease riddened prison with barely any food or fresh water. Read this book because it will be one you will never forget

This first person account provides a wealth of insight into the day-to-day rituals of "life" in one of the most forbidding Civil War prison camps. Throughout his trials, however, Charles Hopkins never loses his faith in humanity and even manages to endure with a sense of humor. His uplifting story bears testimony to the strength of the human spirit under fire. Hopkins' style of writing is descriptive and conversational, and works well with the enlightening information and photos supplied by editors Mr. Styple and Mr. Fitzpatrick. I highly recommend this book to all who are interested in the Civil War and in becoming acquainted with one of its many unsung heroes.

Are you about to spend the summer with the kids?

Is Dad about to have the kids by himself for a week?

Do you know DINKs (Dual Income No Kids) about to become SITCOMs (Single Income, The Child, Oppressive Mortgage)???

GET THIS BOOK!!!

This book has been a staple of Metro Atlanta area parents for over a decade. This 6th edition (2001) was well researched and updated. There is even a section on future things to do (i.e. the Atlanta Aquarium and others). The authors share lessons from their experiences in taking kids to Atlanta attractions and share stories that others have shared.

You will find out things you never knew about the Atlanta area (did you know one of the largest Kangaroo Reserves outside of Australia is just north of the metro area?).

As picking our own produce was a cherished childhood memory, I would like to see more in the "U-Pick" Farms section. They made minor references to one web page, but left out many of the staple U-Pick and kid friendly farms in area. More on the North Georgia apple country would be great too.

Janet and Denise, keep up the good work!

This handbook is the most extensive information I"ve found in one place. I refer to it all year when I want to plan activities for my child. It is a wonderful resource, and every parent should have one. I've lived in Atlanta all my life, and I had no idea that there were so many fun things to do that I didn't even know about. It also had a list of great free things to do. Definitely a must for all parents!

Atlanta Alive is a comprehensive, concise, and easy-to-follow guidebook to Atlanta's sights and entertainment. As a reference tool, it is as useful to Atlanta residents as it would be to visitors. Recommended!

Atlanta is a destination with something for everyone, whether you are traveling on business, taking a family vacation, or looking for a romantic getaway. Ann Burgess' well-written guide is fully indexed and includes maps of Atlanta's downtown and surrounding neighborhoods. Atlanta Alive! contains detailed information in every category, including family activities to please children from toddlers to teens, with theme parks, sports, and outdoor adventures to keep everyone busy; sites and tours, from the Civil War to the Civil Rights Movement and beyond; restaurants, from traditional to trend-setting; hotels in every neighborhood, from budget to extravagant; nightlife, shopping, and cultural activities for every taste.

This is a wonderful book for both the new and the experienced teacher hoping to bring depth and breadth to their classroom poetry programs. I used it as a first-year teacher of writing, but ended up buying a second copy after sharing-out my original with a colleague with substantially more experience.

For starters, the book is well-written and concise. For busy teachers (is that a tautology?) this means you will really read and really use it. It has all the elements that keep such readers engaged: practical classroom ideas, samples of student work, segmentation of topics into smaller components and, wide-ranging perspective.

Most importantly, however, the book has PASSION! Heard launches you with an introduction entitled "Poetry, Like Bread, Is for Everyone". She maintains this level of enthusiasm through to the last page, where she quotes Matthew Fox to the effect that "The Celtic peoples... insisted that only poets could be teachers... knowledge that is not passed through the heart is dangerous."

I agree - passion HAS TO BE the core of a poetry program in elementary or middle school. Amidst the wash of demand for reading and writing more expository material that standardized testing has brought to the writing class, passion and poetry have often slipped to the background. The poetry 'program' can become a quick trot through narrow 'tricksie' forms like name-poems and shape-poems. Kids need more. You do too.

Heard offers a wonderful suite of approaches to poetry 'centers' in a chapter on "Making a Poetry Environment." These include listening, illustration, performance and music centers as well as poetry windows, amazing language center and a handful more. The centers-based approach can be hard to manage unless properly prepared, but it is a wonderful way to build fluidity into a process that otherwise suffers from rigidity of task or schedule. This book will offer strong support for such an approach.

In the chapter discussing "Writing Poetry", Heard takes the metaphor of the door as entryway, suggesting, among others, the "observation door", the "concern about the world door" and the "wonder door." She then moves to the details of crafting of poetry with a "toolbox" metaphor and a nice collection of tools. In this as in the earlier instances, her pedagogical metaphors will serve your students but also serve to structure your planning and presentation of concepts. Heard concludes with a chapter about the observational element of the poet's craft - what she terms "sharpening outer and inner visions", and a number of useful appendices.

I'm certain this book will light-up your enthusiasm for a poetry-based classroom.

Ms. Heard has put together exercises and knowledge to create a stunning list of usable classroom exercises. She uplifts even the most discouraged teacher heart and gives you the renewed vigor to attack ignorance while inspiring others to find the light within.

I have read the Battle of Resaca by Philip Secrist and I highly recommend this book for the serious student of the Battle of Resaca.
Dr. Secrist has done an outstanding job by going into more detail than is normal for a Civil War book. The maps are great and are drawn so that even the novice can find the sites. Secrist brings up-to-date what is happening to Resaca at the present time. I found in the book why that there were certain parts of the battlefield that I couldn't locate. Well worth the price!

Ideal book for a Civil War buff. Take it with you if you visit the site. Written accounts from the soldiers that stormed across the hills put you in the moment. Several good maps and even pictures taken a few days after the battle help take you out of your living room and into the past.

Georgie Kennedy can whip any man twice her size, and has. Now, though, she has come up against an opponent she just can't lick, her grandfather. It seems that the gold stake she sold Cougar Barnes actually belongs to the old goat, and he has reclaimed it. This puts Georgie in the awkward position of having inadvertently cheated a friend, but there is a way out of her mess. If she will agree to grandpa's terms, come back to "civilization", become a "lady" and marry the wimp he has picked out, thus cementing a business merger, the mine is hers, free and clear. This is not a solution that makes her really happy, but she has little choice. The wimp is nice enough, but the becoming a lady part, well, Georgie absalutely hates that part. She puts it a bit more colorfully, however. Grandpa's plans might have to change when Cougar shows up and interferes with Georgia's heart.

***** If you have laughed and enjoyed My Fair Lady and The Princess Diaries, then you will love BECOMING GEORGIA as well. One laugh follows another as we see the results of an irresistible object meeting an inmoveable force. *****

In 1870, Chicago attorney Jacob Whittaker arrives in Prescott, Territory in Arizona to escort his client's granddaughter back to the Windy City. However, he expects a lady of some sort, but instead sees an arm wrestling female that makes Jacob believe his fee ought to double because he must change "George" into Georgia. Initially refusing to go east, Georgie girl is forced to when Jason informs her the mine she sold to Cougar Barnes was not hers to sell.

In Chicago, her grandpa offers her a deal. If she stays for one year and accepts the courting of his hand picked dolt, he will give her the mine outright even if she fails to wed his chosen one. As she struggles to change from a brawling mine working George into a facsimile of lady Georgia, Cougar arrives demanding ownership of the mine he bought from her.

BECOMING GEORGIA is an amusing mid nineteenth century Americana romance reminiscent of "Annie Get Your Gun". The story line contains a strong cast to include the lead couple, a secondary duo, her grandfather, and her friend Essie that bring Chicago and to a lesser degree Arizona in 1870 to life. However, it is the humor that makes this tale stand out in the bookshelves as fans will appreciate the antics of George of the desert turning into Georgia of the Windy City.

Harriet Klausner

This book was given to me by a friend, probably because I was in the independent grocery business for many years, many of them lean ones.
I stayed up all night reading Better to Dwell because of its honesty and realism.
Books like this one do not often come along.
Thanks to Mary Coleman and her publisher.

The historical accounts presented in the book are factual and true.
I was able to gain insight into why my great grandfather and Boog
had the fight.

Not since TO A KILL A MOCKINGBIRD have I read a better novel that truly catches the flavor of the "old" South.

Schunk captures the stupidity and cruelty of racism through the eyes of a child. Her writing is excellent and the characters come alive on her pages.

I recommend this book highly to anyone who is interested in reading a captivating and yet horrifying mystery with a heart.

This one will stay with me a long time.

~In the summer of '51, twelve-year old Beth Ann Crane and her family visits the young girl's grandmother in Columbus, Georgia. Beth Anne loves her family and enjoys visiting her grandmother. However, this time things seem different to the young girl. She is aware of the swirling horrors of racism that seems to permeate everyone and everything. Being curious, Beth Anne begins to ask questions in a futile effort to understand the relationships that surround her.