Review: Look Away, Dixieland: A Carpetbagger's Great-Grandson Travels Highway 84 in Search of the Shack-up-on-Cinder-Blocks, Confederate-Flag-Waving, Squirrel-Hunting, Boiled-Peanuts, Deep-Drawl, Don't-Stop-the-Car-Here South

• Author:  James Twitchell
  
• Hardcover: 200 pages
• Publisher: Louisiana State University Press (March 18, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807137618
• ISBN-13: 978-0807137611

From Goodreads

As a boy, James Twitchell heard stories about his ancestors in Louisiana and even played with his great-grandfather's Civil War sword, but he never appreciated the state and the events that influenced a pivotal chapter in his family history. His great-grandfather, Marshall Harvey Twitchell, a carpetbagger from Vermont, had settled in upstate Louisiana during Reconstruction, married a local girl, and encountered much success until a fateful day in August 1874. The dramatic story of the elder Twitchell's life and near assassination fuels the author s pursuit of his family s history and a true understanding of the South.

In Look Away, Dixieland, Vermont-native Twitchell sets out from his current home in Florida on the inauguration day of America s first black president to find the real South and to try to understand the truth about his illustrious ancestor. He travels in an RV from Georgia s Okefenokee Swamp across Alabama and Mississippi to Coushatta, Louisiana. As he drives through the heart of Dixie, Twitchell sorts through the prejudices he learned from his northern rearing. In searching for the culture he had held at arm's length for so long, he tours small-town southern life in campgrounds, cotton gins, churches, country fairs, and squirrel dog kennels and uncovers some fundamental truths along the way. Notably, he discovers that prejudices of race, class, and ideology are not limited by geography. As one man from Georgia mockingly summed up North versus South stereotypes, ''Y'all are rude and we re stupid.''

Unexpectedly, Twitchell also uncovers facts about his great-grandfather and sheds new light on his family's past. An enlightening, humorous, and refreshingly honest search, Look Away, Dixieland reveals some of the differences and similarities that ultimately define us as a nation.

About the Author

James B. Twitchell lives in Gainesville, Florida, and Charlotte, Vermont, with his wife, Mary. He was a professor of English at the University of Florida for many years and is the author of, among others, Twenty Ads That Shook the World; Living It Up: Our Love Affair with Luxury; Branded Nation: The Marketing of Megachurch, College, Inc., and Museumworld; and Where Men Hide.

My Review

I've always been fascinated by the American South so I read this book with great interest.  It is a history book in that it recounts the story of "carpetbagger" Marshall Harvey Twitchell, the great-grandfather of the author.  And it is a travelogue in that it describes the RV journey undertaken by the author and his wife along Highway 84 through the Deep South.  It was a really interesting read.  Like most people I had never heard of the massacre at Colfax or Coushatta, both in Louisiana.  The knowledge of these events and how they fit into the decline of reconstruction of the US South was very enlightening.  I also found the description of the area along Highway 84 to be quite fascinating.  I appreciate that the author was curious about his family's history and that he needed to know the whole story.   If you are interested in the history, geography and sociology of the US South then this is a must read.

Review: The Shelter of God's Promises by Sheila Walsh

• Author:  Sheila Walsh
  
• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson (February 8, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9781418546069
• ISBN-13: 978-1418546069
• ASIN: 1418546062

Sheila's first in-depth 10-week DVD Bible Study "The Shelter of God's Promises".
Includes 10 DVD teaching lessons, a 50-lesson workbook and leader's guide. Perfect for church and women's group study.


In a world of uncertainty, pain, and struggle, where do you find solid assurance and unshakeable truth?
Gifted Bible teacher and inspiring Women of Faith speaker Sheila Walsh offers powerful, heart-filled teaching on ten bedrock promises of God, providing the foundation for daily confidence, joy, and hope.
In The Shelter of God’s Promises, Sheila searches Scripture for what God has promised us, what God's promises mean, and how encounters with Christ are the eternal fulfillment of His unrelenting commitment to us. In this riveting walk through some of the Bible's most compelling stories, Walsh unveils ten foundational promises of God that secure our lives during even the most difficult times. Sheila weaves her hallmark storytelling, inspiring personal experience, and Scripture to help readers gain a trust in God that will sustain them for a lifetime.

You can read the first chapter of the book here.

About the Author:


Sheila Walsh is a powerful Bible teacher and best-selling author from Scotland with over 4 million books sold. A featured speaker with Women of Faith® conferences, she has reached more than 3.5 million women by combining honesty, vulnerability, and humor with God's Word.

Sheila is the author of the best-selling memoir Honestly, the Gold Medallion Award nominee The Heartache No One Sees, the Retailer's Choice Award nominee Beautiful Things Happen When A Woman Trusts God and the Gigi, God's Little Princess series, which has won the National Retailer's Choice Award twice and is the most popular Christian brand for young girls in the US. She just released her newest book and DVD Bible study for women The Shelter of God's Promises. In 2012, she will release her life-message book God Loves Broken People.

Currently completing her Masters in Theology, Sheila lives in Frisco, Texas with her husband, Barry, her son, Christian, and her two little dogs, Belle and Tink.

Click here to view some frequently asked questions about Sheila, her web site, and her ministry.


My Review:

Just yesterday I was watching and discussing one of Sheila's appearances with Women of Faith at my ladies bible study and today I am reviewing her newest book which is a DVD based bible study and lesson guide.  I did not have access to the DVD so this is a review of the participant's guide only.

This bible study is about the Ten Promises that the Lord has given us:

Jesus - I Need Something to Hold On To
Provision- I Don't Have Enough
Peace- I'm Afraid and Feel Alone
Confidence-I Can't See God's Plan in this Pain
Love- I Don't Believe that Anyone Could Really Love Me
Grace- I Have Failed
Hope- I'm Broken
Strength- I Feel Things Are Crashing Around Me
More- I Know There's Something Better
Home- I Have a Future

This study is set up in a similar fashion to recent Beth Moore studies I have done.  A bible study watches the DVD together then discusses it in their small group.  Then there are four lessons for the participant to complete independently.  The book is well laid out with introspective questions that challenge the participant. 

From what I can see without having read the book or seeing the DVD lessons, I believe that this will be a great bible study and I will recommend it to my bible study.

Review: Charles Dickens and the Street Children of London

• Author:  Andrea Warren
• Reading level: Young Adult
• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children (September 26, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0547395744
• ISBN-13: 978-0547395746

Product Description

 

Provoked by the horrors he saw every day, Charles Dickens wrote novels that were originally intended as instruments for social change — to save his country’s children.

 

Charles Dickens is best known for his contributions to the world of literature, but during his young life, Dickens witnessed terrible things that stayed with him: families starving in doorways, babies being “dropped” on streets by mothers too poor to care for them, and a stunning lack of compassion from the upper class. After his family went into debt and he found himself working at a shoe-polish factory, Dickens soon realized that the members of the lower class were no different than he, and, even worse, they were given no chance to better themselves. It was then that he decided to use his greatest talent, his writing ability, to tell the stories of those who had no voice.

 

 

From Goodreads:

 

Charles Dickens is best-known for his contributions to the world of literature: Oliver Twist, Great Expectations and A Christmas Carol.  In Charles Dickens and the Street Children of London, acclaimed historical author Andrea Warren shares with readers the motivations behind Dickens' novels and then brings readers headlong into the poverty-stricken world of 19th century London. During his young life, Dickens witnessed terrible things: families starving in doorways, babies being "dropped" on streets by mothers too poor or too sick to care for them, and most of all he witnessed a stunning lack of compassion from the upper class.  After his family went into debt and he found himself working at a blacking factory (where boot polish was made), Dickens, who had been raised to believe that the lower classes were not only undeserving of anything better, but were so dirty that he could be contaminated by them, soon realized that they were no different than he, and even worse, they were given no chances to better themselves.  It was at this blacking factory that he met a kind friend named Bob Fagin, who would go on to be named one of Dickens' most memorable (and villanous!) characters in Oliver Twist. 

At 25, Dickens became the toast of London with his first novel, The Pickwick Papers.  People of all classes read it - the poor would pool together money to purchase this serial novel.  But Dickens had more serious stories to tell: he wanted to tell of the workhouses were small children toiled for their entire lives; he wanted to tell of all the horrible things he had seen the upper class turn their back to.  He wanted to tell one child's story, and that child became Oliver.  With the runaway success of Oliver Twist, and it's memorable "Please sir, I want some more," Dickens was thrust into the public spotlight as a spokesman championing the rights of the deserving poor.  His time as an instrument of social change was just beginning.  Along with some contemporaries in the world of music, art and education, Dickens changed school systems, hospitals, and orphanages, all while representing the lowest class with the same respect as the upper class in his novels. 

Spirited, smart, and handsome, but not without his own demons and personal issues, Charles Dickens is an enigmatic character whose name is recognized the world over, but whose achievements outside the literary realm are not often discussed.  Charles Dickens and the Street Children of London melds these two legacies in an intriguing, compelling and fast-paced biography, filled with historical images and photographs. 

 

 

 

About the Author

 

 

Andrea Warren's books about children are the result of her passion for history and her interest in young readers. She has been a professional writer for twenty years and works from her home office in the Kansas City area. Her first book for Houghton Mifflin, Orphan Train Rider, won the 1996 Boston Globe - Horn Book Award for nonfiction.

 

My Review

 

I found this a particularly fascinating book because it is a part of my family history.  One side of my ancestry were very poor Londoners, in fact East Enders or Cockneys.  My great-grandmother spent her childhood years in a workhouse because her widowed mother was too poor to care for her and her siblings.  What an honest and realistic look at the plight of the children of London in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.  This book probes how the writings of Charles Dickens enlightened people to the realities of the poor.  The book chronicles the life of Charles Dickens and the changes in his early life that brought him in contact with the poor of London who he would write about so brilliantly.

Did you know that the life span of an average London resident almost two hundred years ago was twenty-seven years.  And for the poor twenty-two.  Amazing. London was a filthy, violent, despair ridden city for most.  This book has wonderful illustrations, both photographic and drawn.

The author encourages everyone to something to help improve the lot of others.  What a wonderful book for young and older reads alike.

3Q with Bridget Asher — WIN THIS BOOK!

3Q with Bridget Asher — WIN THIS BOOK!

Review: A Deeper Kind of Calm by Linda Dillow

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: NavPress; New Edition edition (September 30, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1600060757
• ISBN-13: 978-1600060755

Product Description

 

Through the Psalms, women can learn how to positively handle the disappointments of life, discern the comforting truth found in God’s Word, and be encouraged to deal with the waves of trials, depression, and discouragement.

• Includes a 4-week Bible study

 

From the Back Cover

 

How D o We Wa l k B o l d ly Wh e n Ou r Wo r l d S e e m s t o B e C r u m b l i n g B e n e at h Ou r Fe e t ? Join celebrated author and speaker Linda Dillow on the journey to contentment with this follow-up to the best-selling Calm My Anxious Heart. Learn how to positively handle the disappointments of life and discern the comforting truth found in God’s Word. Be encouraged and learn to deal with the waves of trials, depression, and discouragement that threaten to flood our souls. Hidden in the psalms are portraits of what faith looks like in times of trial. Through them, author Linda Dillow will help you discover how to: -remember what God has done (Psalm 77) -hide in His presence (Psalm 46) -cling to Him (Psalm 63) - praise Him for all we cannot see (Psalm 84) The glorious promise from Psalm 84 is that as we walk through the “valley of weeping,” it can be turned into a place of blessing. Includes a four-week Bible study to help you further unpack the comforting truth of God’s Word.

 

 

About the Author

 

Linda Dillow is the author or coauthor of numerous best-selling books, including Satisfy My Thirsty Soul, Calm My Anxious Heart, Creative Counterpart, Intimate Issues, and Intimacy Ignited. Linda and her husband, Jody, lived in Europe and Asia for seventeen years training Christian leaders with Biblical Education by Extension. Linda now speaks frequently at women’s conferences. The Dillows, who have four grown children and seven grandchildren, live in Monument, Colorado.

 

 

My Review

 

I was looking forward to this book with great anticipation.  My ladies bible study, previous to my joining, had studied Calm My Anxious Heart by Linda Dillow and could not stop raving about it!  A Deeper Kind of Calm is a book about maintaining steadfast faith in the midst of adversity.  I very much enjoyed reading the book as well as working through the study questions.  It is a wonderful volume for dealing with the hard times in our lives.

The book is divided into a four week bible study that can be done on your own or with your bible study group. It breaks down into four different chapters from Psalms:  remember what God has done (Psalm 77), hide in His presence (Psalm 49), cling to him (Psalm 63) and praise him for all we cannot see (Psalm 84). The concluding chapter wraps up the journey we are on to face the adversities in our lives and move forward. This book helps to learn how to positively handle the disappointments of life and discern the comforting truth found in God's Word.

Ms. Dillow begins by pointing out that although Psalms is generally thought of as God's hymnal of praise, we also need to remember that it is also a book about pain.  She asks three questions:

 

1. Is it possible to go through the Valley of Weeping without falling apart?
2. Is it possible to have joy in the midst of suffering?
3. Is it possible to grow in intimacy with the Lord as we travel through the valley?

Ms. Dillow helps us find the answers to these questions in this enlightening bible study.

You can find a sample chapter here.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from NavPress Publishers as part of their Blogger Review Program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commision's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

 

Review: A Drop of the Hard Stuff by Lawrence Block

• Author:  Lawrence Block
  
• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Mulholland Books (May 12, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316127337
• ISBN-13: 978-0316127332

Product Description

 

"The Matthew Scudder novels are among the finest detective novels penned in this century."-Jonathan Kellerman

Matthew Scudder is facing his demons. Forced out of the NYPD, he's given up the drink. He's thinking seriously about his relationship with sometime girlfriend Jan. Then he runs into "High-Low" Jack Ellery, a childhood friend from the Bronx. They're two sides of the same coin: Scudder once solved crimes as a detective. Ellery committed them. In Scudder, Ellery sees the moral man he might have become. In Ellery, Scudder sees the hard-won sobriety he hopes to achieve.

Then Ellery is killed, shot once in the mouth and once between the eyes, presumably while attempting to atone for past sins. Is it what he saw or what he said that got him killed? Ellery had no family, no friends to press for justice. Scudder reluctantly begins his own investigation, with just one lead-Ellery's Alcoholics Annonymous list of people he wronged. One of them may be a murderer, but that's not necessarily Scudder's greatest danger. Immersing himself in Ellery's world may lead him right back to the bar stool.

Exploring themes of loss, nostalgia, and redemption, for Lawrence Block, A DROP OF THE HARD STUFF circles back to how it all began, reestablishing why the Matthew Scudder series is widely regarded as one of the pinnacles of American detective fiction. 

 

About the Author

 

Lawrence Block is a Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America, has won multiple Edgar and Shamus awards and countless international prizes. The author of more than 50 books, he lives in New York City.

My Review

A Drop of the Hard Stuff is the seventeenth novel in the Matthew Scudder series and is the first book that I have read in this series. It can also be read as a stand alone novel.  In fact this novel actually goes back in time to the 1980s to the days when detective Matthew Scudder was approaching his first anniversary of sobriety and living alone in a hotel in New York City.  This book has a heavy focus on the twelve steps of Alcoholics Anonymous and the program itself.  The murder of an old friend of Jack's is directly related to that friend, Jack, religiously following the steps in the program.  Step 8, making amends and dredging up the past lead to the demise of Jack.  Greg, Jack's AA sponsor, hires Matt because he feels responsible as he is considered a step-Nazi in the AA program.  Greg believes that his encouragement to Jack to follow the steps is what has led to his death. 

This book is a great mystery and it is also an amazing chronicle of the reality of a alcoholic encountering their first anniversary of sobriety.  A real eye opener and a real winner.

Review: The Bayou Trilogy by Daniel Woodrell

• Author:  Daniel Woodrell
  
• Paperback: 496 pages
• Publisher: Mulholland Books (April 28, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316133655
• ISBN-13: 978-0316133654

From Publishers Weekly

 

Starred Review. Collected in a single volume for the first time, Woodrell's three stellar novels featuring Det. Rene Shade, an ex-boxer turned cop, provide entrée into the Louisiana swamp town of Saint Bruno, a place where "tempers went on the prowl and relief was driving a hard bargain." Woodrell (Winter's Bone) injects Shade's life and various cases with both humor and brutal violence. In Bright Lights (1986), the investigation into a city councilman's murder mushrooms into a corruption scandal, with Shade feeling pressure from above for a quick—and predetermined—result. Muscle for the Wing (1988) finds Shade up against a gang of ex-cons, hell-bent on wrestling control of Saint Bruno's less-than-legal action. Shade and his two brothers—bar owner Tip and district attorney Francois—are reunited with their long-absent paterfamilias, John X., in The Ones You Do (1992), in which John X. returns to Saint Bruno with a 10-year-old daughter and a killer on his trail. There's poetry in Woodrell's mayhem, each novel—and scene—full of gritty and memorable Cajun details. (Apr.)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Product Description

 

A hard-hitting, critically acclaimed trilogy of crime novels from an author about whom New York magazine has written, "What people say about Cormac McCarthy ... goes double for [Woodrell]. Possibly more."

In the parish of St. Bruno, sex is easy, corruption festers, and double-dealing is a way of life. Rene Shade is an uncompromising detective swimming in a sea of filth.

As Shade takes on hit men, porn kings, a gang of ex-cons, and the ghosts of his own checkered past, Woodrell's three seminal novels pit long-entrenched criminals against the hard line of the law, brother against brother, and two vastly different sons against a long-absent father.

THE BAYOU TRILOGY highlights the origins of a one-of-a-kind author, a writer who for over two decades has created an indelible representation of the shadows of the rural American experience and has steadily built a devoted following among crime fiction aficionados and esteemed literary critics alike. 

 

About the Author

 

Five of Daniel Woodrell's eight published novels were selected as New York Times Notable Books of the Year. Tomato Red won the PEN West Award for the Novel in 1999. Woodrell lives in the Ozarks near the Arkansas line with his wife, Katie Estill.

Excellent article here:  http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/daniel-woodrell-the-ozark-daredevil-404146.html

My Review


Daniel Woodrell is the author of Winter's Bone which was made into a critically acclaimed film of the same name.  He is based in West Plains, Missouri in the heart of the Ozarks.   Mulholland Books has rereleased three of Woodrell's novels featuring Detective Rene Shade in this one volume:  The Bayou Trilogy.  The three novels are 1986's Under The Bright Lights, 1988's Muscle For The Wing and 1992's The Ones You Do.  The novels are set in fictional St. Bruno, Louisiana in the heart of Cajun country.  Crime and corruption abound.  These three stories are very gritty but realistic tales. Mr. Woodrell's writing style is amazing.

I highly recommend this trilogy of stories from one of the US south's most powerful writers.