The Sea Brings it Forth

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The Sea Brings it Forth
Jack Rudloe
Manufacturer: Alfred A Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000KCZII2

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The sea brings forth
Jack Rudloe
Manufacturer: Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Zoology | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
Natural History | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books
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The Erotic Ocean: A Handbook for Beachcombers

The Wilderness Coast

ASIN: B0006BQQKG

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The Sea Brings Forth
Jack Rudloe
Manufacturer: E. P. Dutton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000R7WYGE

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Sea Brings Forth 1ST Edition
Jack Rudloe
Manufacturer: ALFRED A KNOPF
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000PYF6IC

Book Description

There's no better way to relive the birth of our nation than by walking along the 2 1/2 mile Boston's Freedom Trail. Readers can put on their walking shoes and use this illustrated guide as a companion as they follow Boston's redbrick trail past the site of the Boston Massacre, the Bunker Hill Monument, and twenty-four other historic landmarks. Each entry in this souvenir guide includes information about admission fees, wheelchair accessibility, telephone numbers, and Web sites.

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Boston's Freedom Trail a Souvenir Guide
Robert Booth
Manufacturer: Globe Pequot Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Guidebooks | Reference & Tips | Travel | Subjects | Books

North America | Travel | Subjects | Books

General | Travel | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1564404897

Boston's Freedom Trail, 6th: A Souvenir Guide

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Boston's Freedom Trail, 6th: A Souvenir Guide
Robert Booth
Manufacturer: Globe Pequot
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Travel | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0762726652

Book Description

There's no better way to relive the birth of our nation than by walking along the 2 1/2 mile Boston's Freedom Trail. Readers can put on their walking shoes and use this illustrated guide as a companion as they follow Boston's redbrick trail past the site of the Boston Massacre, the Bunker Hill Monument, and 24 other historic landmarks. Each entry in this souvenir guide includes information about admission fees, wheelchair accessibility, telephone numbers, and websites.

Boston's Freedom Trail, 8th: A Souvenir Guide (Boston's Freedom Trail)

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Boston's Freedom Trail, 8th: A Souvenir Guide (Boston's Freedom Trail)
Cindi Pietrzyk , and Robert Booth
Manufacturer: Globe Pequot
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Travel | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0762747692

Book Description

BOSTON’S FREEDOM TRAIL, A Souvenir Guide 8th edition
The two and half mile Freedom Trail offers a rare opportunity to trace the path of American history and this handy guide is the perfect companion to carry along. Provided is a brief description of each site’s historical significance and architectural details, as well as information about admission fees and hours of operation.

Erica Bollerud is a former editor at Yankee Publishing, and lives in Medford, Massachusetts.

Book Description

I look behind me as we walk toward the parking lot, gravel crunching and spraying beneath our feet.

"Whatcha' lookin' at, Aurin? I thought you weren't interested in those guys," Kenney says.

"I'm not," I say.

There is a carefully constructed balance between Aurin and her friends Kenney and Fred. Kenney is usually the one who comes up with things to do -- her flair for the dramatic can make even boring old Greensboro seem interesting. And if she is a little controlling, Aurin and Fred just look the other way.

Aurin has no intention of throwing off their established equilibrium. But when Neila joins their circle, Aurin realizes that she and Neila are becoming more than friends. Aurin and Neila are happy in their developing relationship, but Kenney feels left out. Can Aurin manage to mend things with an increasingly possessive Kenney, without letting her control this aspect of her life?

In this stunning debut novel, Tea Benduhn looks at a teen making decisions about her future while trying not to lose her past.

Customer Reviews:

Shallow uninteresting teen drama.......2007-03-27

I was initially attracted to this book by vague cover and the fact that it was Tea Benduhn's debut novel. I had high hopes that this book would reveal something to me about homosexuality. It didn't.

The book is about seventeen-year-old Aurin and her friends Kenny and Fred. When a new girl, Neila, comes to the tiny town of Greensborough, they decide to start hanging out with her. Aurin and Neila's friendship soon blossoms into something else. The book takes place in four places: the park, the dance studio, the restaurant, and Aurin's house.

This book falls far short of revealing something new about gays and lesbians. All I learned was that girls kiss girls the same way that girls kiss guys. What's new about that? Gravel Queen falls flat most of the time, with the characters not in-depth enough to create an interesting or intriguing story. It is often difficult to see what drives them to do what little they do. Also, Ms. Benduhn's love of strange names (Aurin, Neila, Kenney, Prudence) confuses and frustrates the casual reader. Aurin and Neila's developing romance, which should be the central point of the novel, is also flat. Ms. Benduhn seems to have spent most of her time during the writing of the novel thinking up new sensations for Aurin, which often sound more like a bowel disorder than growing love.

Basically, Gravel Queen is a book that could be good if (a) it had a better plot, (b) better characters, and (c) a different author! I would highly recommend avoidance of this novel.

Fun.......2005-10-10

Gravel Queen is a fun, loving book about first love feelings. Some of it is a little over the top, in the realm of magical. While other novelslike "Keeping You a Secret" is more in depth and real, Gravel is still good.

Cute, frothy entertainment........2003-07-04

This is basically an after-school special in novel form. Well, make that novella form. It's only 150 pages.

The three main characters spend all their time hanging around at the local park, wandering aimlessly through their town, sighing dramatically about how incredibly bored they are. True to life? Sure. Interesting? No.

The protagonist is a bored, sort of passive-agressive girl named Aurin who has a crush on a girl named Neila. (The author apparently has a fondness for weird names.) Her moody, attention-grabbing friend Kenney is jealous of the time she spends with Neila. It's never really explained why. Aurin resents Kenney, but that is never really gone into in depth. NOTHING in this book is gone into in any depth. It's a quick, superficial skim into the pool of teenager-hood.

Excellent Book.......2003-04-05

This is a very tender caring book which was certainly written by a caring loving Person. It becomes a page turner. It teaches us to care for one another, forgive and share. Refreshing and confident. Wonderfully written. We need more writers like Tea.

A touching romance, a good story.......2003-03-26

Aurin and her two friends have a nice comfortable friendship in their teen world, in Greensboro, North Carolina. When new girl Neila arrives, her liveliness and fun, are an instant attraction to Aurin. How Aurin manages to bring Neila into her life, and still keep her friendships, keeps you reading. This is a sweet, touching romance, realistic, with nice touches of humour. Author Benduhn insists this story could have happened for real, and most of it seems credible. The ending is definitely satisfying. A delightful, thoughtful novel.

Gravel deposits of the Caddo Gap and De Queen quadrangles, Arkansas, (Contributions to economic geology)

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Gravel deposits of the Caddo Gap and De Queen quadrangles, Arkansas, (Contributions to economic geology)
Hugh D Miser
Manufacturer: Govt. Print. Off
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B00087CWS8

Book Description

First published in 1943, Vitamins and Hormones is the longest-running serial published by Academic Press. In the early days of the Serial, the subjects of vitamins and hormones were quite distinct. The Editorial Board now reflects expertise in the field of hormone action, vitamin action, X-ray crystal structure, physiology, and enzyme mechanisms. Under the capable and qualified editorial leadership of Dr. Gerald Litwack, Vitamins and Hormones continues to publish cutting-edge reviews of interest to endocrinologists, biochemists, nutritionists, pharmacologists, cell biologists, and molecular biologists. Others interested in the structure and function of biologically active molecules like hormones and vitamins will, as always, turn to this series for comprehensive reviews by leading contributors to this and related disciplines.

*First published in 1943, Vitamins and Hormones is AP's longest running serial
*Each volume contains cutting edge reviews by leading contributors

Book Description

This book draws together recognized experts from numerous institutions in Western Europe, Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, and North America. Nuclear facility decontamination and decommissioning, waste treatment, management and disposal, long-term monitoring and surveillance, and prevention of proliferation are the primary topics discussed, including critical assessments of the existing knowledge and identification of the needs for future collaboration. Proposals are presented for a variety of national and international agencies, and preliminary business plans developed for collaboration with private companies. A network of international projects needs to be financed since it is such projects that will ultimately ease tensions, help solve nuclear waste contamination and security problems, and help pave the road toward nuclear weapons disarmament.

Book Description

The past twenty years have shown a rapid growth in the theoretical understanding, useful applications and widespread acceptance of multigrid in the applied sciences, and new tasks continue to arise that are better addressed from a special multigrid point of view. These developments have served to make multigrid one of the key techniques in modern computing methods. Most prominent among the new issues are parallel computing and adaptive computations. Multigrid methods also have considerable impact on computational fluid dynamics. This influence is mirrored in the present, carefully screened selection of contributions presented at the Fourth European Multigrid Conference in Amsterdam in 1993, all of which reflect the latest developments in this dynamic field.

Book Description

Simone Weil (1909-1943) was a teacher, classical scholar, philosopher, political activist and seeker after truth. She confronted the rootlessness of modern life and the death of the spirit in an age of materialism. Her writing was visionary and her vision, radical. She wrote "The conditions of modern life destroy the mind-body equilibrium in everything, in thought and in action - in all actions: in work, in fighting...and in love, which is now a luxurious sensation and a game...In its aspect, the civilization we live in overwhelms the human body. Mind and body have become strangers to one another. Contact has been lost."

Born in France, a contemporary of Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, Weil inspired T.S. Eliot to say of her, "We must simply expose ourselves to the personality of a woman of genius, of a kind of genius akin to that of a saint." Today, nearly sixty years after her death, her work has, perhaps, an even greater immediacy and relevance. This book is a collection of the best of her writings from The Notebooks of Simone Weil, Oppression and Liberty and Gravity and Grace.

Now presented in a beautifully re-designed edition, The Simone Weil Reader is a source of inspiration; it reflects a towering faith and the ultimate triumph of the spirit.

Customer Reviews:

Oscar and the maiden.......2000-04-20

An amazing collection of essays by one of the most brilliant philosopher/social critic/spiritual writer's of all time. Weil's writing can be extremely dense, I occassionally had to read sentences three or four times to understand what was going on. The problem is not really that her sentences are complicated, but rather that the ideas she is putting forth are, at times, heinously difficult to grasp. When you do finally get it though, Wow! I could alomost feel the wrinkles in my cerebellum changing course. Her analysis of human "rights", her thoughts "on personality", and her assessment of the spiritual aspects of the human soul are astounding. She has an uncanny ability to dismantle social power matrixes, lay them at your feet, and challenge you to re-evaluate your own interaction with them. As a fan of Greek literature I also recommend the essay "The Iliad, a Poem of Force" as one of the more lucid deconstructions of that work. This is a fine anthology which, due to it's chronological orginization and well-written introduction, also give fascinating insight into the growth and development of thought processes of a truly remarkable woman. All in all, this anthology is just extremely cool, though difficult to plow through, it is worth every moment.

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The Simone Weil Reader
George A. (Editor) Panichas
Manufacturer: David Mckay Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000T4GVAK

Loving and hating Simone Weil. (The Reader Replies).(Letter to the Editor): An article from: American Scholar

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Loving and hating Simone Weil. (The Reader Replies).(Letter to the Editor): An article from: American Scholar
Stephen Silver
Manufacturer: Phi Beta Kappa Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B0008IE49M
Release Date: 2005-07-28

Book Description

This digital document is an article from American Scholar, published by Phi Beta Kappa Society on September 22, 2001. The length of the article is 494 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Loving and hating Simone Weil. (The Reader Replies).(Letter to the Editor)
Author: Stephen Silver
Publication: American Scholar (Refereed)
Date: September 22, 2001
Publisher: Phi Beta Kappa Society
Volume: 70 Issue: 4 Page: 151(1)

Article Type: Letter to the Editor

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

Given the phenomenal change in attitudes about life after death, public interest in the Other Side is ever-increasing. Born Knowing will show you that even after the loss of a loved one, you're never truly alone.

Born Knowing is John Holland's first book. In an open and candid way, he explains how he dealt with his conflict of coming to terms, and finally accepting, his rare ability as a spirit messenger who helps people connect with those who have passed on.

Born in the tough suburbs of Boston, John coped with a difficult childhood, where he was ridiculed by his family and society, leaving him feeling isolated because of his psychic abilities. He refused to acknowledge his gift until a near-fatal automobile accident amplified his abilities to the point where he had to learn how to control what was once pushed away.

Drawn by the history and knowledge of spiritualism in England, John takes you on his two-year journey throughout Britain. He tells the story of his training to be a top medium in the British spiritualist organizations, which he humorously refers to as "Spirit Boot Camp," and how he gained acceptance and respect within this tightly knit, often-conservative spiritual community.

Born Knowing takes out the "psychic babble" by validating and dispelling some of the mystery and myths regarding mediumship. Throughout the book, John presents real-life case studies, where he discusses his readings with clients, the effect on their lives, and the sense of closure people feel, knowing that their loved ones who have passed on are still with them.

The book will also help you develop your own psychic and intuitive abilities, recognize signals from the Other Side, and make spiritual connections for yourself.

Customer Reviews:

Born Knowing.......2007-08-27

Great life story of very interesting man. Story told with class and humor. Couldn't put it down.

Disappointing.......2007-05-20

I decided to buy this book because of the excellent reviews it has received, unfortunately I do not share the same opinions as the other reviewers and there are several reasons for this. The prologue of the book is very interesting, however I frequently found myself rereading the prologue throughout the main text because I found it hard to believe I was reading the same book. In the prologue Mr Holland writes about his unhappy childhood and how he was forced to take on the parental role of guardian and protector, I assumed for his family and the book is described as being written in a no holds barred style. However this was not really evident within the book possibly because he has tried to limit his writing to his spiritual journey which I feel was a mistake because it leaves the reader feeling as though they only have half a story. Mr Holland's style of writing is very guarded about his private life with the exception of his father's alcoholism which I found very annoying. I felt really sorry for Mr Holland's parents whilst reading the book because I was given the impression that they hadn't done or given him enough and that the book is tinged with some resentment and bitterness. I thought it was completely unnecessary for Mr Holland to out his father as an alcoholic if indeed this is the case. If this was going to be written about couldn't he have included a quote or section written by his father if it was intrinsic to his spiritual journey. The lack of personal detail in the book actually meant that as a reader I assumed Mr Holland had very little to do with his family for extremely long periods of time and I was still left guessing about his role as guardian and protector for them and who exactly they were. There are three main elements to the book, his spiritual journey, casebook and two techniques. In my opinion these elements did not sit well together, in fact Mr Holland might have faired better if he had written three separate books.

A Great Start for Learning Mediumship.......2007-05-19

I've read countless books but this one really hit home. Not only does he go over his struggles with mediumship, he shows you how to do it. John Holland is an excellent writer and I have found him very compelling. He doesn't seem to be in it for the money or the fame, it just seems to be a part of who he is. I feel he is very credible and I think it's an amazing book.

Great Saga of Discovery.......2006-11-02

John's passion for his work and his desire to help others open up to their own innate psychic abilities just shines through the pages of this book. You can tell he genuinely loves what he does and loves sharing with others. I found the story of how he opened up to his knowingness fascinating. Especially that even people like John had a "day job" at one time and were not always 100% confident in their abilities.

The exercises are fabulous and will truly help you relax and listen to yourself. I also highly recommend his book Psychic Navigator - the CD is well worth buying that book for.

If you are traveling a psychic pathway this book will delight you!

A Review by a Medium.......2005-08-22

I thought this book was really interesting, though his experiences were different than my own as a medium. There were a lot of similiar feelings that I could relate too.

Reverend William Constantine
(...)

Average customer rating:

How Violence is Folly Against the State

Excellent presentation. I was finished before I knew it.

The Greatest Read of the longest raid

Buy this one for your personal library!!

A superbly written and presented history

The Longest Raid of the Civil War: Little-Known & Untold Stories of Morgan's Raid into Kentucky, Indiana & Ohio
Lester V. Horwitz
Manufacturer: Farmcourt Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Military | History | Subjects | Books
General | United States | Military | History | Subjects | Books
General | Civil War | United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0967026733

Customer Reviews:

How Violence is Folly Against the State.......2006-05-01

During the early months of 1861, southern states seceded from the union. After Fort Sumter surrendered to Confederate General Beauregard on April 14, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas joined in secession from the northern states. The resulting fighting between the states became known as the Civil War. Kentucky, a slave state, did not secede. Many were pro-Confederate however. Jefferson Davis was from Kentucky, but Lincoln too was born there.

The battles between the North and South for the hearts of Ken-tuck-ee (Dark and Dangerous Ground) heated up in 1862. Initially, Confederate General Johnston controlled Kentucky with forces at Bowling Green and at Columbus. But Union General Thomas took eastern Kentucky in January 1862 where the south had less sympathy among the locals. Then by February 1862, Johnston had lost most of Kentucky and western Tennessee to Buell's Army of the Ohio. Johnston countered at Shiloh and died fighting Grant, who was reinforced by Buell. So many men died on both sides (25,000) that Grant and Buell were in shock. Grant got drunk and Buell withdrew to Nashville to ready an attack on Chattanooga. With Johnston dead, the Confederates were led by Braxton Bragg.

Bragg laid a campaign to take back Kentucky and made his way toward Louisville, but Buell stopped him at Perryville on October 8th. Buell was replaced with General Rosecrans and took the Union troops out of Nashville to fight Bragg at Stone's River (or Murfreesboro) from Dec 31 of 1982 until Jan 3, 1983. Bragg retreated to Chattanooga.

On January 1st, 1863 Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation that said all slave owners could keep their slaves if they stayed with the union. Hardly emancipating! But most people never read past the title and most people thought that Lincoln had freed the slaves, so slaves took off and non-slaves helped them to freedom. Then draft slavery was implemented by the south - all white males aged 18 to 35 were declared temporary slaves of the Confederate army for three years. A curse if there ever was one!

Taking Kentucky was still the aim of Chattanooga-based Bragg, but first he needed to get out of Chattanooga and move to a more easily defended position with room to maneuver. To this end he appointed Alabama-born and Kentucky-raised General John Hunt Morgan to head a 2,000-man raid into Ohio to disrupt supply lines and communications to Union soldiers, while leading them to believe that they were under attack so that Rosecran's forces would be distracted down in Chattanooga. Morgan and his men managed to do over $500,000 worth of damage before getting captured and sent to prison. Morgan escaped from prison and was killed a year later.

Bragg fell back from Chattanooga and Rosecrans moved in. Now it was Rosecrans rather than Bragg who was bogged down in Chattanooga with no room to maneuver. Bragg held Chattanooga under seige until Grant replaced Rosecrans in October with Thomas. The result was the Battle of Chattanooga, after which Jefferson Davis retired Bragg and replaced him with Johnston.

But Morgan's raid was successful in its aim to allow Bragg to move out of Chattanooga and later pin down Rosecrans there. [...]

Excellent presentation. I was finished before I knew it........2006-02-21

Quibbles about English usage aside, Mr. Horwitz has done a wonderful job in gathering obscurities concerning Morgan's Raid and organizing them into an entertaining account of the Civil War military action. I found it particularly interesting because it happened in many areas that I'm personally familiar with, living in the Cincinnati area and being familiar with the southeastern Ohio area. This is the kind of book that makes learning your history, (local or national,) a painless process.

The Greatest Read of the longest raid.......2003-08-28

Horwitz brings the civil war to life in this book. The Author captivates the reader by putting this "insignificant raid",(when compared to major battles at Gettysburg and Vicksburg) on the front porch and in the kitchens of those hoosiers and buckeyes who had thought the war was very far away. Excellently covers the civilians through letters and diarys, as well as the military actions of the two sides. A must read for any student of csa cavalry, or anyone with a taste for an exciting account of a part of our history.

Buy this one for your personal library!!.......2001-07-06

I love this book because it is so easy to read and one of those books you can't put down until completed because it captivates your interest. I was doing my family history concerning the TAYLOR family and was so intriqued by the book that I bought it and invited the author to our family reunion to share Morgan and his adventures. This is a must have book that inspires the basic Civil War buff and the knowledgeable historian also. The style of the writer makes it enjoyable for the reader. It is like reading a great novel, but accurately depicting the events.

A superbly written and presented history.......2001-02-20

John Hunt Morgan was a general of the Confederacy who conducted the longest, most wide ranging calvary raid in the history of the Civil War. Author Lester Horwitz first became aware of the extent to which Morgan's raid ranged when he discovered that his own ant-bellum home in Cincinnati, Ohio was raided by Morgan's forces. General Morgan's forces covered more than one thousand miles during July 1863 and spanned Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio. Horwitz draws upon hundreds of unpublished stories (a great many of them here published for the first time) as well as historic photos arising from Morgan's Raid in The Longest Raid Of The Civil War. A superbly written and presented history, this seminal work will be of particular interest to Civil War buffs as Horwitz's presentation of the Morgan Raid derives from both sides of the conflict -- those who were raided, and those that did the raiding.

Book Description

Despite the plethora of textbooks available on the European Union and the wide range of interdisciplinary and non-specialist courses on which it is studied, there has, surprisingly, until now been no single text providing concise coverage of all its major dimensions and implications. Rather than focusing just on the history or the politics or the economics of the EU or on detailed coverage of its institutions and/or policies, John McCormick's new book introduces all aspects of European integration combining a very clear and accessible thematic narrative with boxed summaries of a wide range of essential facts and figures.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Introduction.......2000-10-13

As an undergraduate political science major, this book was immensely helpful to me. I read it before studying the EU during my junior year abroad. It's clear, uses easy language, and provides the necessary basics for understanding the institution. I highly recommend it.

A must read for poli-sci majors.......1999-11-03

This is a bit dry, if this is not your area of interests, but anyone who is curious about what's been going on in Europe should read this. The EU is a like nothing this world has ever seen before. This unique institution willl heavily influence global politics in the next century. It behoovs anyone interested in government to learn the basics of what the EU is all about.

Understanding the European Union: A Concise Introduction, Second Edition

Average customer rating:

Understanding the European Union: A Concise Introduction, Second Edition
John McCormick
Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OV6CKW

Amazon.com

Henry Thoreau seldom wandered far from Walden Pond but got a good book full of self-discovery out of the deal. Like Thoreau, Franklin Burroughs stays close to home ground in The River Home (originally published as Horry and the Waccamaw), an account of a six-day solo canoe trip along the Waccamaw River, a little-known waterway that flows from North to South Carolina, ending in the swampy Horry County of his boyhood. Along the way Burroughs encounters feisty water moccasins, backwoods fishermen, and a sage woodcarver who regales him with tales of the great wet forests being cleared for the development of nearby Myrtle Beach. "Accumulated memory is disappearing with the landscape," Burroughs writes, "and people can no longer assume that, simply by being born in the country, they have its history by heart, and need not think further about it." Burroughs's quest for the idyllic South of youthful recollection is melancholic--the destruction of favorite places is, after all, a constant in most of our lives. His well-earned lesson is that of fellow Carolinian Thomas Wolfe: You truly can't go home again. --Greg McNamee

Customer Reviews:

One of the best books I've read this year!.......2001-06-06

Burroughs's book is a wonderful tale of exploration into the dense, winding, wonderful Waccamaw River in SC, and into the mostly forgotten past of his native Horry County. His marvelous sense of detail, poetic sensibility, and grand sympathies with all things natural and human make this a memoroble book indeed. I know Prof. Burroughs might hoot at the comparison, but I enjoyed this book as much as anything I've read in Thoreau.

wonderful natural history of the Waccamaw River.......2000-11-22

A human life, I think, should be well rooted in some spot of native land, where it may get the love of tender kinship for the face of the earth, for the labors men go forth to, for the sounds and accents that haunt it, for whatever will give that early home a familiar, unmistakable difference amidst the future widening of knowledge: a spot where the definiteness of early memories may be inwrought with affection, and kindly acquaintance with all neighbors, even to dogs and donkeys, may spread not by sentimental effort and reflection, but as a sweet habit of the blood. -George Eliot (Daniel Deronda)

This sentiment and the chance discovery of Nathaniel Holmes Bishop's The Voyage of the Paper Canoe (1878), detailing a canoe trip down the East Coast which included a side trip on the Waccamaw River, were the twin impulses that lead Burroughs to return to his native Horry County, SC and make his own trip down the Waccamaw. Burroughs, a professor at Bowdoin, published a terrific collection of essays Billy Watson's Croker Sack in 1991 (it even made Mr. Doggett's Suggested Summer Reading List for Students) and this book is every bit as good.

Whether he's detailing the history of the county, the river and his own family or relating his encounters with the river's unique residents or describing the wildlife he encounters, Burroughs has a sharp eye, a sympathetic ear and a silver tongue. Here is his description of one bird he meets:

Yesterday a red-shouldered hawk had called the day to order, and got its business underway. Today it was a pileated woodpecker: a staccato drum-burst against a hollow tree, then the bird itself. It flew across in front of me, with its peculiar alternation of flap, swoop, and collapse, and its last swoop fetched it up against the trunk of a cypress. It clung there a moment, cocked and primed, a perfectly congruous mixture of Woody Woodpecker, frock-coated nineteenth-century deacon and pterodactyl. Then it gave the tree an abrupt, jackhammer strafing, rolled out its lordly call, and swooped away, leaving the day to its own devices.

If you've ever seen one, you know that a pileated woodpecker has never been described better and if you haven't you must almost feel that now you have.

This is a wonderful bucolic look at the history and nature of the Waccamaw, which will leave you wishing that you too had such a place coursing through your blood.

GRADE: A

Average customer rating:
River Home - Return To The Carolina Low Country
Franklin Burroughs
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000JZX7EW

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