I first read this book in junior high school,and now am in my thirties. I've re-read it about twenty times and it is probably my favorite all time.{and i read a LOT of books} It's one of those books that you want to read on a day you have completely to yourself.{so that you won't have to put it down until you finish} I've often thought that it would make a great mini-series for television. As an Alabamian I can relate to it well since it deals with our neighbors to the east. But I think that anyone anywhere would enjoy it immensely. A definite "must read".

I consider this one of the best books I have read, and I'm an avid reader. The characters are wonderful, and the story is a page turner. There is humor, excitement, romance, emotion, terror. I have read it at least 4 times. It calls to mind another Southern novel--To Kill a Mockingbird.

I had to read this book in 10th grade English class. I liked it so much I stole the book! I read extensively, and this is one book, along with Rand's The Fountainhead that I can read again and again and again... I have given this book to everyone, and I've even read it aloud to my husband. Jeff Fields' characters are as richly developed as any...I only wish I could meet Earl. I encourage everyone to read this book, especially if you like Southern Lit. By the way, can anyone tell me what happened to Jeff Fields, or if he has written anything else?

Expect Sunshine is a ray of hope for those in search of quality writing. Don't pick this book up if you have some where to go. You will not want to put it down.

For a first novel, Betty Bush has written an excellent story about love, family, fear and the south. The characters were wonderful, the setting was perfect and it is a must read for all. I look forward to her next novel.

Betty Bush listened to the old people. She wrote it down and in doing that, she let the sun shine in on some of the deepest darkest secrets of the Old South. Betty's book tells the stories we've heard told around the kitchen tables, in the barbershops and beauty parlors since we were old enough to listen. They are the stories our parents prefered we did not hear when they gathered, and shooed us away.Betty's book is the American story about our connections to our land, and our sad losses of the connections. She finds hope and strength in the human spirit and she warns us that if we don't wake up, we will all be sharecroppers for generations. This is a "must read" for anyone who wants to know the truth about why we are the way we are. Her book is filled with compassion, forgivness and love of life; it is a relection of her soul.

For 10+ years I've read 2 or more books per week....the 2 "Jane" books are excellent! Characters are true to form & culture, the mystery is enthralling & has enough twists to maintain high interest but without the need to write down people etc in order to keep track. I fervently hope this woman writes more books!

In Run Jane Run, the adventure of Jane Nichols is getting more exciting than before. Jane, again, does what she does best as a premium MI-5 agent. If you have read AKA Jane, you know what she is capable to do. In Run Jane Run, she easily does it again. Alex, her lover boy, is as hip as before. Another character that I really like is Joey, Alex's beautiful, blonde, younger sister. She is completely sweet and innocent. I hope her part would be bigger in the coming series. If you like AKA Jane, you would love Run Jane Run. After all, who could resist a beautiful British brunette fighting machine with a mysterious past?

"A.K.A. Jane" was the most exciting and definitely the best book in this genre... until "Run Jane Run" came along! This latest book from Maureen Tan is both gripping and believale, building on the strong foundation of "a.k.a.", and yet also stands brillantly on it's own. My two final words : More Please!

There's been a lot written about the civil rights movement but the Temple Bombing is a real stand-out from the pack. Greene writes a compelling narrative, using the bombing of an Atlanta synagogue in 1958 as a touchstone for an in-depth social history. There's a good overview of Jewish life in the American south, the history of extremist groups in mid-20th century America, and how the bombing of "The Temple" effected so many people in so many ways. Couple that with a lively cast of characters that Greene brings to life through vivid prose and great personal sketches. Well worth reading and passing on to others.

I picked this book up in a Boston bookstore a few years ago while attending a National Abortion Federation meeting. The title attracted me, as I was attending my first national abortion rights organization conference of abortion providers and was astounded by the level of fear and anxiety that I sensed among my compatriots. It has been said that the true test of courage is not in doing what needs to be done without fear, but is in continuing to do so even in the face of great fear. If this is in deed true, my colleagues in the National Abortion Federation must be among the most courageous people in the world. Many of those whom I met there had endured years of threat and ostracism, of attacks both verbal and physical, and most knew clinic workers and abortion providers who had been maimed or murdered or whose facilities had been bombed and burned. And they continued their work even in the face of continuing threats to themselves, their families and their coworkers. So Greene's book title was a magnet for me, pulling me in although I had never heard of Ms Greene or the Reform Temple bombing. (I was in the Navy, serving in the Pacific when this incident occured and must never have seen any news reference to it. I was perhaps much more attuned to the events in Arkansas in the 50's, and never had heard of it until I read Ms. Greene's account.) The Temple Bombing is a masterwork by a master story teller, and although the ending is somewhat unsatisfactory in that the perpetrators were never caught and punished for their part in this heinous terrorist act - some of whom probably went on to other deeds even more evil like the the bombing of the Church in Birmingham which killed the four little girls - this is the way history played out in the South. Much as many of us would like to change it. Ms Greene has written a fine book with a truly heroic protagonist sympathetically and sensitively portrayed, and has given us a vision of an Atlanta and a time which long ago ceased to exist. For movie buffs, the temple bombed was that depicted in the wonderful movie, Driving Miss Daisy.

I purchased this informative history after my Temple in Gary Indiana had received a second bomb threat in as many years and the most recent being on Easter Sunday 1997 when an anonymous caller warned the caretaker of the detonation time.

The Temple hadn't been involved in any significant political movements for quite some time; the civil rights struggles had mostly depleted the community of the majority of its white residents and those who had remained in the neighborhood were as liberal as was our congregational membership. In the past those members who had been the most outspoken for integration of the public beaches and of the schools and for free polio vaccinations and bettering the conditions for prisoners were either hounded by the House Un-American Activities Committee or had since then been honorably distinguished by Gary's Hall of Fame committee. What threats if any the Temple had received in the distant past, when our intellectual rabbis had struggled for timely social improvements, were long forgotten to the deceased or perhaps had been filed to memories of denial? This most recent threat coming on Easter was a time old anti-Semitic standard, and yet a very real and dangerous relic of the pre-enlightenment era when non-thinking and superstitious peasants were easily rallied into violent action and a pre Vatican II legacy which just won't go away.

I read Greene's tome about the Civil Rights activist rabbi Rothschild in Atlanta and in conjunction with Louis Rosen's 1998 publication 'The South Side: The racial transformation of an American neighborhood' and about a Chicago Jewry which made a striking comparative between the general civil standards reserved for American blacks between the South and North respectively, neither of which were honorable. The Pill Hill neighborhood Rosen portrayed was one I knew intimately and I remember the trouble, the nervous conversations following the riots and the passive yet panic driven moves to the suburbs. In the Miller Beach section of nearby Gary, Indiana, rabbi Carl Miller at the same time had led the call for civil rights unlike the departing rabbi in Rosen's Illinois story and yet a flood of moving trucks nevertheless crowded the beach community streets with too many families fleeing under the premise that the public schools had deteriorated. However, the Indiana rabbi had made an impact because many families did remain and enough to sustain the Temple but ironically not a single member has even today a child enrolled in the Gary public schools.

Having read both tomes, I discovered Greene's book on the shelf of a friend's Mother's home when visiting them in the American Southwest and then learned that Greene had portrayed my friend's maternal Grandmother. A discussion pursued, my friend challenging his Southern belle Mother on her passivity with regards to the poor standards reserved for blacks in the South of her youth, and yet while we knew she, a merchant, had at one time pushed the social norms for a Valentines exhibit of women's lingerie in their storefront windows, that had caused a sad public out crying over what would be as innocuous as a 'Victoria's Secret' display today. As my friend hounded his Mother for answers, I could only think of those members back home in Indiana, in the more tolerant North, and in the 'City of the Century' whose prosperity had been stalled because of the FBI's allegations of communist activities and whose patriotism had been challenged because they had outspokenly called for social justice or their having been blacklisted by the Medical community when they had lobbied for free polio vaccinations! I also thought of my own Mother's childhood friend whose father the Chicago police had murdered in the infamous Republic Steel Strike of 1938 and who is one of the dead men for who Meyer Levin dedicated his novel "Citizens.' My friend's Mother had not been a political nor spiritual leader, amongst those professions that should have advocated social change, but for as many years as I have known her, a merchant who had pushed as much as she could in her own field, she has not only stood by but had been supporting their community's most liberal rabbi whose sermons demand more changes in our own times for prison reforms and other unpopular causes. Both reads of 'The Temple Bombing' and the 'South Side' reminded me of my favorite James Madison quote: "Measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and over-bearing majority." And of my GGG Grandfather's epitaph "Freedom, Justice and Liberty, Do right and Trust in the Lord." Which in itself explains perhaps in my favorite UJA slogan an adaptation of an Disraeli quote from Alroy (1833): Great civilizations rise and fall but we few, we Jews we do survive! How lucky we are to have had a Rabbi Rothschild in Atlanta, and for a Melissa Faye Greene to tell us the story of this American patriot who spoke out for unpopular but just causes! Make this tome next year's Pesach gift, a chapter of our American Patriotism!

Not that short books are inherently bad or good, but this tiny volume is able to pack it in without wasting words. I am amazed at how Lupton is able to express such profound and challenging concepts with such clarity and directness without coming across as anything less than loving and wanting us to love God more, and live accordingly.

Although this book is over 10 years old, the stories and lessons are still very applicable, and I can imagine the same situation occuring in inner cities everywhere. The issues are still around, and people are still yearning for the solution of Jesus Christ.

We American suburbanite Christians need to challenge our mindset, our assumptions that we have been so content with for so long. This book is a great place to start.

The strength of this book lies in its total honesty and realistic look at life in the inner-city living life and doing ministry among the urban poor. Lupton doesn't shy away from the hard questions, but answers them boldly with the words of Jesus. He exhorts us to be radical in our servanthood of our neighbors, and to sacrifice ourselves for others. In other words, he just calls us to what Jesus calls us to. This book is very easy and quick to read, but the lessons learned in this book can be pondered and worked out in a real-life context over and over again. This is certainly one of the best books I have ever read that encourages you to take the Gospel seriously in the inner-city. It's worth far more than the time it will take you to read.

Having worked in urban ministries, I can realte much more to Lupton's book than I can to any stories from the mainstream media. He draws the reader right in to the realities of urban life, and in his delightful vignettes makes his neighbors your neighbors. He takes what the media might call "street people" and helps us see each one as a PERSON with a face, personality, and most importantly, a soul.

Cold Sassy Tree fans have a treat in store. Louise Shaffer's Miss Margarets offers the strong narrative and intriguing characters that have made Olive Burns' novel a perennial favorite. This is one of those books you force yourself to read slowly because you don't want it to end. Pray for a sequel, and in the meantime give this book to friends--or those whom you wish were friends.(They will be after they read it!)

I loved this book, could hardly put it down.

It is about three elderly women who have a dark secret they were all involved in from the past. It takes place in Georgia and involves racism, murder, homosexuality, poor people, rich people, single mothers....... Once you start reading you won't want to put it down until the final surprise ending.

In spite of the fact these three ladies are involved in something as horrible as murder, you like them. There is also the young Laurel, 20 something, tough and hurt badly by her alcholic mother, who begins to realize these three old ladies have information that will set her free from her past.

Get it, read it, you won't regret it.

I heard Ms Shaffer on NPR recently and bought her book. What an outstanding novel. I can't say enough, hopefully someone will make a film of THE THREE MISS MARGARETS.

I hated the thought of this book ending. This adventure book became one of creativity in survival with some interesting twists and turns, too exciting to put down. When I finished the last page I knew there had to be a sequel....here's hoping to see the next adventure of Millie!

This book was a fabulous account of the growth of a middle aged woman from someone always dependent on her man (father or husband) to a self assured independent individual. I hope no one ever has to go through the process through which she learned her true self, but the story pulls you in and holds you fascinated, always taking a twist that you did not forsee. It was easy to read and made a cold, rainy weekend bearable.

Mildred is MY kind of woman. A real survivor. She uses not only her physical strength, but her mind to overcome the obstacles placed in her path. I really liked the way the book was written in the form of a journal. I found that I could read a while and then if I had to leave it for a day or two, it was easy to pick up the continuity of the story. Mildred was portrayed in a very realistic way and Ms. Purtee's descriptions of the problems she encountered were at times mind-boggling. Good work, Georgia! When is the sequel coming out?

A must have for anyone seeking answers for life's many questions. This book is beautiful in it's writing and craftsmanship. Captivating and magical in it's responses, you will find yourself unable to put in down. As your relationship develops with this most fascinating book it will develop a personality of it's own.

I highly recommend this book for anyone - whether one believes in divination or even if one just wants to have fun reading the answers to their life questions. Ms. Routis Savas is definitely a talented writer and is knowledgeable about both Bibliomancy and human nature overall. She perfected how to magically hook the reader into wanting to continue over and over asking life's questions (whether it's regarding this life or one's next life). She also is a very creative / imaginative writer with intuition into the inner self. Once the reader starts, he/she can't put the book down. I wish my friends and I had this in high school. We would have spent many evenings asking "The Oracle Book" question after question. It's lots of fun and informative. Enjoy!

Ms. Routsis Savas truly has the GIFT! I have been a devoted fan for years, and this book only deepens my devotion. Buy it. You'll LOVE it!

Neca Stoller is a poet rooted in the soil of the rural South. Her latest volume is filled with images of the red clay of her home state, as well as characters from her family, uncles and aunts and cousins, former college roommates, and others who populate the Georgia backwoods.

Stoller, born in Savannah and educated at the University of Georgia during the tumultuous 60s, has spent the past several years living, working, and writing on a Georgia cattle farm. Her love of the land and the gentle rhythms of rural life sparkle in her poems. Bound by Red Clay is a slim volume of 60 selections, arranged in five titled chapters. It comes after numerous accolades for her verse from such diverse organizations as the Palomar Showcase and the Haiku Society of America.

Ms. Stoller is at once both peaceful and poignant when she focuses on the slow and repeating meter of country life. "Sultry Evening" is an evocative short poem about the pleasures of rocking on a porch hammock while crickets harmonize on summer evenings. In "Red Clay," we follow along as she wanders through sites of the Civil War, still heavy with memory. "Baling Hay" reminds us of the heat of such summer work, but rewards us with an image of " an iced mason jar/ black tea thick with sugar."

Stoller's themes throughout the book are telling: homecoming, death, lost love, the summer's heat, rural life, the social history of the South. She obviously has roots in her homeland, and that foundation creates lovely verse. The truths she finds among Georgia's red clay and pine forests ring true through time and space.

"Bound by Red Clay" continues to astound the contemporary poetry market! It has been nominated for these awards: Georgia Writers Inc. Book of the Year--Poetry Category, Tufts Discovery Award, and the poem "Gopher Tortoise" was nominated for the coveted Pushcart Prize. The first run sold out in 6 months, and the second printing has sold 50% in only a month. Neca Stoller's work is indeed slated to become one of America's best.

When I ordered Neca Stoller's book I wondered if the high standard I had admired in examples of her work I'd seen on the net would be sustained through a book. It was.

My other concern was whether poetry specifically drawing on a Georgia, USA, landscape would be relevant in Australia. It was. Australian friends have validated my opinion on this.

Like the book itself the poetry is spare, direct and captures the essence of her subjects. Her focus is not distracted by any vanities. The discipline of Japanese genres shines through. The poetry is strong and credible.

I commend it to anyone with a sense of place and community, no matter where in the world they are centered.

A moving book, quite heart-rending at times. And yet frustrating as well. Too many pages are given to the crushing and authoritarian leaglism of their early faith which ultimately counts for nothing. As the doors of self- and God-understanding open, I yearned to know more to hear more of their internal transformation and the remarkable people who cross their paths--like Madelaine L'Engle. The climax of confrontation and decision was gripping but I sensed a gauzy filter descending thereafter, masking the grit required in reconsituting lives and relationships.

In a work of rare honesty and compassion, Sally Lowe Whitehead shares her heart with the reader. While focusing on the painful reality of discovering that her husband and the father of her children is gay, this work deals with much more. It is an honest and sometimes painful account of the author's coming to terms with a Church that is often unforgiving and unloving. Whitehead's journey toward faith and forgiveness is both moving and challenging to the reader. It is impossible to read her words and not re-evaluate one's own ideas and prejudices. The Truth Shall Set You Free is a work that is not only honest in its presentation, it is one that encourages the reader to equal honesty.

Although the book explores her husband's journey toward reconciling his faith and his sexuality, it truly explores the myths and realities of faith in the context of sexuality in general. A refreshing memoir about one family's maturing into authentic Christian faith, "The Truth Shall Set You Free" demonstrates that "real" Christians and "gay" Christians can come together in the reality of life and faith to develop close, intimate friendships that strengthen the faith of each.