Book Description

Klevenhagen was the epitome of the unchanging Texas Ranger—tall, lean, leathery, and unstoppable. He bridged the gap between the old and new ways, holding fast to the best traditions while eagerly grasping new and scientific methods of detection. He left a legacy of dedication and heroism that will never be forgotten.

This lively and exciting tale of the turbulent times from the thirties to the fifties is a dramatic and colorful study of one of the Texas Rangers’ best. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Texas Ranger Johnny Klevenhagen
The well told story of dedicated law enforcement officer who was both feared and respected by the criminal element of Texas from the late 1930's to his death in 1958. Doug Mead did a good job of researching and recording the short life of one of the best Texas Rangers of modern times. This book probably meant more to me than the average reader since I knew Johnny Klevenhagen as well as many of the people mentioned in the book, however most readers will find it interesting if you like learning about good people who make a difference. ... Read more

Book Description

The Light Crust Doughboys are one of the most long-lived and musically versatile bands in America. Formed in the early 1930s under the sponsorship of Burrus Mill and Elevator Company of Fort Worth, Texas, with Bob Wills and Milton Brown (the originator of western swing) at the musical helm and future Texas governor W. Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel as band manager and emcee, the Doughboys are still going strong in the twenty-first century. Arguably the quintessential Texas band, the Doughboys have performed all the varieties of music that Texans love, including folk and fiddle tunes, cowboy songs, gospel and hymns, commercial country songs and popular ballads, honky-tonk, ragtime and blues, western swing and jazz, minstrel songs, movie hits, and rock 'n' roll.In this book, Jean Boyd draws on the memories of Marvin "Smokey" Montgomery and other longtime band members and supporters to tell the Light Crust Doughboys story from the band's founding in 1931 through the year 2000. She follows the band's musical evolution and personnel over seven decades, showing how band members and sponsors responded to changes in Texas culture and musical tastes during the Great Depression, World War II, and the postwar years. Boyd concludes that the Doughboys' willingness to change with changing times and to try new sounds and fresh musical approaches is the source of their enduring vitality. Historical photographs of the band, an annotated discography of their pre-World War II work, and histories of some of the band's songs round out the volume. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Pithy Comments on the Occupation of Knoxville
Two g-grand nieces of Ellen House discovered these diaries in her trunk upon the death of an aunt. What a find! Ellen House had strong opinions and voiced them. The Siege of Knoxville (November 1863) is covered and Sutherland's footnotes make for GOOD history. Don't think, you WWII GIs out there, that "scuttlebutt" started in "our" war. There was plenty during the Civil War, some preposterous. Sutherland provides good interpretive notes. Highly recommended! Four stars only because there are a few gaps in Ellen's coverage of the War in Knoxville, but who can blame her. Deprivation was the order of the day. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A Texas Ranger
It should be of little wonder that A Texas Ranger, originally printed in 1899, has been through several reprints. This small book remains one of the most readable and compelling accounts of life on the rough and rugged Texas frontier among the famed Texas Rangers in the 1870's. With a foreword by the noted western writer J. Frank Dobie, and an introduction by current day historian Stephen L. Harding, author N.A. Jennings recounts with clarity and intensity his first-hand experiences as a young easterner who comes to Texas to find his fortune. What Jennings actually finds is adventure beyond description in a land that abounds in beauty and majesty while frought with danger and hardship. The author's depictions of real-life events along the Texas-Mexico border are told in first person and include his recollections of fights at Las Cuevas and run-ins with such outlaws as King Fisher, John Wesley Hardin, and Sam Bass. The reader, through the eyes of this talented writer, is offered a look into the action-packed old West. The book serves to accentuate the impact that the daring and hearty young Rangers had in ridding the frontier of Mexican raiders and the lawless riffraff that found its way to Texas in the mid-nineteenth century. While A Texas Ranger makes an interesting read, the book itself is not without controversy. Famed Texas historian Walter Prescott Webb characterized the book as one that "abounds in errors and misrepresentations." However, Jennings fully acknowledges that his book, written some twenty-five years after his experiences in Texas, is based largely upon his recollections of events at the time and is adequately footnoted throughout. From this reviewer's perspective, A Texas Ranger is an interesting and engaging story, one that most readers will have a difficult time in putting down. ... Read more

Book Description

A young Scottish doctor looks back on the unforgettable characters who became his patients in East Texas.Qualified as a doctor only 18 months before, he leaves the security of his medical school, his hospital and his heritage to start a single-handed rural practice in the wilds of Texas—his only resources: his ex-flight attendant, pregnant wife and their year-old baby.They exchanged their city sophistication for a rustic life, their temperate climate for the appalling heat and humidity of Texas, and their culture and language for a behavior and speech based on one of America's last frontiers.Deceived by those who invited them to American and left briefly penniless; befriended by a nearby village without medical help and miles from a hospital, they cared for their new patients, covering, in an old Ford with a hole in the floor, a house-call area larger than New Hampshire and Rhode Island combined.Like their patients, they survived.Because they had each other. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A doctor's tale with a difference
Once started I found it almost impossible to set this book aside to carry out other tasks. Eric's story is indicative of the outstanding achievements by pioneering Scotsmen practising medicine in most trying conditions. His anecdotes are both humorous and tragic, and warmly told. It is clear that he and his wife Margaret became well-beloved within the community they served, which in turn received the caring attention at the hands of a young medic at the outset of his career as a country doctor. ... Read more

Book Description

What was most remarkable about Jim Ling among the great players of corporate games is that he invented his own. And it worked for a while. In fact, he convinced some of the smartest people on Wall Street that he had a foolproof way. It has been more that 25 years since Ling strode the scene as creator and CEO of Ling-Temco-Vought, once the 14th largest corporation on Fortune's 500 list. When the financial magic he used wore off, he was ousted from the helm. They even changed the name to plain LTV to get his name off the facade that wound up as a bankrupt steelmaker.

Without any education beyond high school in Oklahoma and electrician's training in the Navy during World War II, Ling discovered a way to create free money for a while. He called his series of acquisitions and spin-offs Project Redeployment, which made it sound like something grander than it proved to be. But while it worked, it was dazzling, even compared with Michael Milken's rediscovery of undervalued, high-yield (junk) bonds. Unlike Milken, a convicted felon, Ling was a man of integrity whose worst trouble with the law involved a minor regulatory matter. He believed in himself and his venture so thoroughly -- and wrongheadedly -- that he kept all his own and his children's money in his company's stock and was wiped out.

The trouble with financial games is that they are easier to play than focusing on sound management and products, and they are surely more fun to watch. ... Read more

Book Description

The most extraordinary politician, businessman, medicine man, and promoter imaginable was this Cajun entrepreneur who revolutionized American product advertising. ... Read more

Book Description

In his youth Daniel Trabue (1760–1840) served as a Virginia soldier in the Revolutionary War. After three years of service on the Kentucky frontier, he returned home to participate as a sutler in the Yorktown campaign. Following the war he settled in the Piedmont, but by 1785 his yearning to return westward led him to take his family to Kentucky, where they settled for a few years in the upper Green River country. He recorded his narrative in 1827, in the town of Columbia, of which he was a founder.

A keen observer of people and events, Trabue captures experiences of everyday life in both the Piedmont and frontier Kentucky. His notes on the settling of Kentucky touch on many important moments in the opening of the Bluegrass region. ... Read more

Book Description

A deeply touching saga of one family's experience flowing richly across three generations.Wind Chimes and Promises is dramatic, suspenseful, funny.Most of all human.It tugs heartstrings and beckons the imagination through the specter of human emotions. ... Read more

Reviews (12)

Genuine Love
"Wind Chimes And Promises", a well written story about a genuine loving and compassionate family. Ms. Adair wrote her heart out by taking her readers on a journey from Homer, Georgia(Banks County) to Indianapolis, Indiana. This was an excellent book. I pray Ms. Adair continue to share her God given talent with us.

Rich family history shared with the reader.
This book was a wholesome story of a family's life spanning fifty years beginning in Georgia and ending in Indiana.Ms. Adair-Ward has done an excellent job drawing the reader into the joy and pain of her family.The story provided plenty of history about Indianapolis and the black community beginning in the early 1900's.
Will and Sally Knowx owned a large farm in Homer, Georgia where there was plenty of room to roam for a family of twelve. During the early 1900's the south of full of racism and klan activity were reported widely.The Knoxes were forced to leave their home,family members and friends behind when rumors surfaced that the klan were targetting Papa.After an altercation in town Papa quietly moved his family to Indianapolis, Indiana.Little did they know that the klan were moving their headquarters to Indiana about the same time.
Life for the family was different but their love sustained them.
Indianapolis was an exciting place to behold with all the bright street lights and the trolley.But there was not as space as in the south.There was talk about Riverside Amusement Park and its limited access to blacks.Segregation was alive and well in this city.
Papa Will was easy on the kids but Mama Sal was quite the disciplinary, despite her petite stature.She did not tolerate anyone messing with any of children.She had to pay a visit to the children's school early on to rectify a problem that had arisen with her boys.
They also had plenty of mischief shared by all the children.Prudence in particular was quite headstrong.
One incident in particular was when Prudence and her sister Blance had snuck off to the Douglas Theater to see an old friend perform.They had lied and said that they were going to a game at the school.Of course Mama Sal knew about the escapade.Nothing got past Mama Sal, she seemed to know everything.
Pick up a copy of this book to find out what became of the Knox family.It will truly be worth the money.

The Heritage of Love and Stengths
What a wonderful book.I have read, "Wind Chimes and Promises" twice.If any reader of this delightful book has an imagination; they must be able to here Sal's wind chimes.I laughed at the antics of the Knoxes boys.I cried upon the deaths of Papa and Sal. I understood what Pru. went through with her husband. This book delivered a message about a Black family.A Black family moving and adjusting to the life from a small southern city to Indianapolis. Mrs. Adair opened her heart, put pen to paper and shared the courage, endurance, perserverance and most of all love of a large family. Well done Mrs. Phyllis J. Adair.

The PassingDown of "Sal's" Strengths and Virtues
What a delightful book!I have read this book at least two times, and it keeps getting better.How wonderfully unique Mrs. Adair writes.I not only read, "Wind Chimes and Promises" I went further, and placed myself in the mist of a large, close knit family.What a joy to read of the strengths portraid, and the Prayers of Sal and Pru. It is very obvious this author did excellent research.I cried when "Papa and Sal." died. I loved reading about the events from the dinners at the "Knoxes." Mrs. Adair has placed so much love and patience in this book, and the readers are all the better for it.A Black family movin and adjusting from life in the South to life in Indiana.This book exhibited endurance, perserverance and a lot of love.Well done Phyllis J. Adair.

Remembering Times of Long Ago.
I was deeply touched by Ms. Adair's ability to share the history of her family in a way that recaptured days of my own youth and the joys I experienced with my family.Her story can be my story and the story of so many people.I cried at the sadness of the family leaving home for an unfamiliar place and the circumstance that lead to the move.I laughed at the sibling rivalry and I found myself smiling because it bought back so many childhood memories. I was reminded of how much fun it is to have a large family, even in the hard times. Wind Chimes and Promises was a joy from cover to cover.It brimes with family love and devotion; excitement as well as momemts of tenderness.It was the kind of reading that you couldn't stop until you were finished, and it left you wishing for more.I recommend it as a must read.I hope this will not be the last we hear from Ms. Adair, she is a gifted writer. ... Read more

Reviews (9)

outstanding
After reading T. Harry Williams outstanding bio of Long, I decided to buy this book, and I was not disappointed. Boulard's study of Long's "invasion" of New Orleans, while much shorter than Williams' book, is great in its own right, as well as tremendously researched and detailed.

Coming away from the book I was delighted by the way Boulard brilliantly recreated the New Orleans of 1934-1935 and eras before then. His descriptions of the people and the life in the city were incredible. Similarly, his picture of Long takes on a life of its own. Boulard makes Huey larger than life, much as Williams does. However, his book is very balanced and discusses Huey's movement of troops into New Orleans as dictatorial, while at the same time spending time to praise Huey where it is necessary.

I would recommend to anyone who decides to buy this great book to also take in Williams' monumental biography as well as Ken Burn's Long documentary.

Well-written, well-balanced history
Whatever else we might think of Huey Long, most Louisianans would agree that, as governor and then senator, he was a populist -- right? In the summer of 1934, many residents of New Orleans had reason to think otherwise. The senator and T. Semmes Walmsley, mayor of the city, had once been uneasy allies, but began feuding on many fronts. In January 1934, after Walmsley defeated the Long candidate, the senator denounced what he claimed was election fraud by the Democratic "Old Regulars." Then, never one to bother with courts and the law, he clinched his argument by bringing in the Louisiana National Guard (functioning as the senator's private army) to take over the Soule Building, which housed the voter registration office. The guardsmen quickly set up machine guns at the windows, aimed at the mayor's office across the street. Both sides finally agreed to a monitoring process for the September election, which was swept by the Long slate. The Old Regulars deserted the mayor the following summer and flocked to the senator's banner, thereby setting him up nicely for a run at the presidency in 1936. Long's march on Washington, however, was interrupted by an assassin's bullet in September 1935 (fortunately for all of us, probably). This is an exciting, well-documented, and very well-written account of one of the more unnerving episodes in this state's history.

amazing triumph
I am fascinated with Southern history. This is quite possibly the BEST book I have read on it. Huey Long was a remarkable leader who tried to pull the South into a modern era; but he was held back both by the same ancient forces that were responsible for the Civil War as well as his own dangerous impulses.

The author brilliantly presents Huey in all of his costumed roles; similarly he gives to the reader a picture of New Orleans that is equal to Faulkner's Mississippi: compelling and vivid.

A fantastic accomplishment!

NOT A CONSERVATIVE OR LIBERAL BOOK--WELL BALANCED
I read the remarks of the professor from Tulane who thought this book was too conservative and wondered what he was talking about as I read this book last summer and did not detect any political bias on the part of the author, Mr. Boulard.

I have since reread the book, and still don't know what the guy from Tulane is talking about. Mr. Boulard says great things and bad things about Huey Long; he similarly goes after New Orleans Mayor Walmlsey and the Old Regular political machine.

I have since given this book for Christmas to my uncle and another friend, and both of them said they thought it was great.

Perhaps the reason the professor from Tulane thinks Mr. Boulard's well-balanced treatment is too conservative, is because he may be too liberal--it's possible.

This book works particularly well against T. Harry Williams big biography of Huey Long. Williams gives us the life, Boulard gives us a year in the life. Together they are two great books!

wonderful,enjoyable ride through history
Huey Long in 1934 was one of the most popular, yet dangerous, men in the nation. He had a real chance to be president of the U.S. mostly because the ongoing Great Depression forced people to turn to leaders who were more dynamic and controversial than before.But the Kingfish had problems at home in Louisiana--the corrupt old city of New Orleans kept kicking at his ankles.Long wanted to get New Orleans out of his way before he headed for the White House--and he did so by sending in thousands of young militia men to help him take the city over!

A fantastic chapter in American history.This book is at times very funny, other times it is sad. You never really know where the author stands as he seems to give all of the major players their due.

The book also has an entertaining collection of photos and cartoons too. ... Read more

Book Description

Where does a single, twentysomething girl go for adventure when she’s been raised among Manhattan artists, drag queens, and intellectuals threatening to move to Cuba? If that girl is Kyle York Spencer, an aspiring newspaper reporter, she heads south, to North Carolina, to cut her chops at the Raleigh News & Observer.

Setting up shop in the Tar Heel state, Spencer finds herself interviewing everyone from skeet-shooting cowboys and Christian Rockers to the Human Carver--a serial killer--and the Smallest Woman in the World. Embraced by a sassy group of husband-hunting southern belles, she wonders whether sleeping with a Jesse Helms supporter is really part of the grand plan or if Mark, her best friend whose calls from LA provide a lifeline, is really the one. Picking up some valuable wisdom along the way, she learns that finding Mr. Right is far less important than surrounding yourself with the right people–and that making a home ultimately involves more than just deciding where to live. ... Read more

Reviews (12)

Being from the South...I wasn't sure how I'd take this book!
Actually, I think because I grew up and spent the first 18 years of my life living in Texas...I could relate to this book more. Even though Kyle and I are around the same age, we come from two very opposite lives and we're two very different people; but I was absolutely able to bond with her through the book. I will have to admit though, I couldn't relate at all to the fashion sense and brand names (mostly clothing and shoes) mentioned on almost every page. I wear Levis, sweatshirts, and shoes bought at Sears...much of the name dropping regarding clothes went over my head!

Don't let any of this fool you, the book is NOT a jab at southern people or living...it is more about Kyle's need to find herself and a place to call home. Overall this book was an easy, light read and it had me literally laughing out loud, especially during the water skiing episode!

Kyle is Vile
The premise of this book is ridiculous -- since when is Raleigh, North Carolina, the "heart of Dixie"? But even more ridiculous: the notion of a memoir in which the author "made stuff up." Why did she have to do that? Because the truth wasn't interesting enough? In truth, even this exaggerated memoir isn't interesting enough, in large part because Kyle Spencer is too young to be writing a memoir and because she takes herself way too seriously and thinks way too highly of herself. Her delusions of grandeur are embarrassing to read. ("I pictured myself leaping onto some carpeted auditorium stage, preparing to accept the third consecutive Pulitzer of my young career.") And her writing is just plain bad. ("I thanked Susan B. Anthony for getting the women's lib ball rolling.") Her attempts at self-depracation ring false. Get over yourself, Kyle!

What's the point
I was interested in reading what a Northerner had to say about Raleigh. I wasn't too offended by her representations of Raleigh, but was very offended by her needless and painful descriptions of her family and of her own behavior. I don't think I'd want to speak to her if I were one of the family members she chose to excoriate.

In the end, though slightly amused occasionally, I couldn't figure out what her point was in writing this book. Also, I was very interested to read in another review of this book that she graduated from the journalism school at Chapel Hill. Not exactly culture shock to move to Raleigh.

Both Boring And Wrongheaded
As a North Carolina native who spent 5 1/2 years working at a newspaper, I thought I would find something to enjoy in this book. Unfortunately, it [was not good]. Ms. Spencer's hackneyed detailing of the Wacky Southland was both unoriginal and just plain inaccurate. ..., Raleigh NC is just as homogenized and civilized as the rest of the East Coast.
Spencer's depiction of her dysfunctional family may have been more truthful, but she fails to create a coherent narrative from it. ...

blah
Didn't like the ethics it portrayed. It was breezily written, however. ... Read more

Book Description

In this brave and lyrically composed tribute to her mother, Minrose Gwin accomplishes something rare in the craft of the memoir: not merely a record of a devastating mother-daughter relationship but a redemptive act of artistic witness as well. In telling the story of her mentally ill poet mother, Erin Taylor Clayton Pitner, Gwin looks backward and forward at a southern family, linking personal and cultural malaise while also attempting to envision the person her mother longed to be, the woman Gwin never knew.

Erin Taylor wasn’t always crazy. Her childhood diary from 1930 reveals a cheerful, observant Mississippi girl who always wished for snow, though "usually it didn’t come. And when it came it didn’t stick." From a dreamy college student to a young divorced mother who then remarried, grew middle aged, and began to write and publish poetry, Erin Taylor spiraled deeper and deeper into the psychosis that eventually defined her existence until her death from ovarian cancer. Gwin searches for her mother amid the poetry, letters, recipes, traffic tickets, newspaper clippings, medical reports, and quixotic lists left behind.She even conjures a ghostly "Erin in the office" who tells her own version of Gwin’s memories.

"There is," Gwin writes, "such a thing as crazy-mother bonding.This can occur unexpectedly any time two women who have crazy mothers are having a conversation. . . . There are more crazy mothers than you might think." With humor, intrigue, and sadness, Gwin’s compelling memoir reflects the brilliance and despair of her mother’s life. Haunting every page of Wishing for Snow is the sense that Erin Taylor is transcending the tragic limitations of mental and physical disease through her daughter’s quest to truly know her. Gwin’s combination of candor and grace takes wing toward a reconciliation both impossible and utterly necessary. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Timeless -- a classic.
I stayed up reading this book and then stayed up another night re-reading it. Often, I felt the pang of something so profound and felt on the verge of tears, even in its funniest moments. The book is hilarious, and yet heartbreaking. It offers a glimpse into a time and the people and the bit of America that seems filled with dreams and nostalgia. It's an addicting read.

love the book
I loved this book. It was about where my mother as born a raised. We readed it aloud to each other. We laughed all weekend. I could just see all the people he wrote about. My mother knew some of them. I readed it a couple of times. Laugh every time.

Eccentricity in the Southern Most Manner
Mr. Swift has written a humorous, pathos filled and somewhat haunting view of a young man growing up in a very remote cultural part of Texas called 'The Big Thicket'. The stories of his family members, characters within the community and his journey with all these people in becoming the individual author that he is today are compelling and touching. The photos by Lynn Lennon are reminiscent of Eudora Welty's during the depression. This is a must read for lovers of Southern literature. Ed Swift presents a riveting study of this uniquely classic portion of Texas.

Not your ordinary heartwarming memoir (it's better!)
This is a poignant memoir but not at all in the sappy, cliched way. Mr. Swift eloquently brings a sense of place and culture for this area of the South. His portrayals of his characters are entertaining and are real tributes to their individualities. Even if you don't know eccentrics like these, you will finish reading this story deeply appreciating unique traits of those who are influential to you. ... Read more

Book Description

In 1824, John Walker purchased a 500-acre farm in King and Queen County, Virginia, and began working it with a dozen slaves. The son of a local politician and planter who grew tobacco, Walker lost status when he became a devout Methodist, raised wheat, and treated his slaves like brothers and sisters. He also kept a detailed and fascinating journal.

Drawing on this forty-three-year chronicle, Claudia L. Bushman provides a richly illuminating study, a microhistory that is rewarding to read. Walker sets aside most of the "Old South planter" stereotype. He sold wheat in Baltimore and Norfolk and invested in railroad stock, and yet he grew, spun, and wove cotton for clothing, tanned leather, and made shoes. He avoided lavish creature comforts in favor of purchasing the latest farm equipment. So far from losing out to soil exhaustion, he experimented with improved farming methods, nourished his land, and kept his yields high.

Walker's journal describes the legal cases he tenaciously pursued, records devotion to the local Methodist church, and explains his practice of Thomsonian medicine on slaves and family members alike. He provides insight into women's work and lays out the drama of blacks and whites living in close intimacy and constant fear. Walker humbly referred to himself as "a poor illiterate worm," but his diary dramatically captures the life of a small planter in antebellum Virginia. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Evidence of the importance of family in Eastern Kentucky
These memories of growing up the 1930's in a Letcher County Kentucky coal mining community are inspiring, especially as they show how rich the author's family was in love and support while living in poverty. The author's respect for the beauty of the area and its people is evident, and she brings members of the community to life, including the plow man, the mid-wife, and the country preacher. To survive, the family eventually moved to the small New York town where an aunt lived, and where the author met and married a local businessman just before her eighteenth birthday. Her vivid description of her first visit back "home" as a sophisticated married woman is bittersweet and hilarious, and that scene alone is worth the price of the book.

Takes you back in time
Once I began reading, I couldn't put the book down. The author transports you to Kentucky in the Appalachian Mountains back in the 1930's. I loved how descriptive the writing was. I plan to get a copy of the book for many of my friends.

I went to school in Wyoming, New York (1968-1981) where Rhoda Warren lived as an adult and I knew her name, but I had no idea of her abilities or her personal story. I am so proud of her. She really has a talent for writing.

A book of extraordinary poignancy and sensitivity.
This is a book that I couldn't put down, but hated the thought of coming to the end of it . It is about a close society of people; a people that in spite of the adversity that they faced in depression era Appalachia, were able to conquer the demons of the company owned mining towns and live lives filled with dignity and compassion. The sensitivity of the descriptive prose brought me into the lives of these noble, heroic people. I found myself wanting to reread so many of the chapters, and I did. I recommend this book to people of all ages and circumstances. It is a beautiful introduction to an important and sometimes sad part of American Culture.

A wonderful chronicle of a simpler time and place.
"Appalachian Mountain Girl" flows with the gentleness and innocence of a happy childhood amidst mountain hardships. So nice to read contemporary memories of Southeastern Kentucky in the 1930's before "progress" crept in to change the landscape forever. This book lends a romance even to the coal mines which provided her family of 13 children with food and shelter. Thanks to Ms. Warren for sharing her life with us. ... Read more

Book Description

Fred Gray grew up in Montgomery, Alabama, and had to leave the state to finish his education because blacks could not then attend Alabama law schools. He returned to his hometown in 1954 and became one of two black lawyers in the city. He was, he writes, "determined to destroy everything segregated that I could find." He did not have to wait long. When his friend Rosa Parks was arrested in 1955 for violating the segregated seating ordinance on a Montgomery bus, 26-year-old Martin Luther King, Jr., was chosen to lead the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and 24-year-old Fred Gray became his—and the movement’s—lawyer. Gray’s legal victory in the federal courts ended the boycott 381 days later. Over the four decades since, Gray has won scores of civil rights cases in education, voting rights, transportation, health, and other areas. He represented the Freedom Riders, the Selma-to-Montgomery marchers, the victims of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, and many more. Bus Ride to Justice is the exciting story of a courageous life in the courtrooms of America and in the pulpits of churches where Fred Gray began as a child preacher and continues today, and of a strong human being filled with love and admiration for his fellow man. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

The real McCoy
Fred Gray isn't just a Civil Rights Lawyer, he's THE Civil Rights lawyer. This man represented Rosa Parks in the Bus Boycott, MLK Jr in the Selma March, the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, and desegregation lawsuits for Alabama public schools. In a world where the word 'lawyer' holds a negative connotation, Fred Gray's story is about what a lawyer ought to be doing. This isn't the movie of the week, it's the real thing by the man who did it. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Run - do not walk - to Possum Walk Road
For anyone interested in quilt history or the history of quilters, this is a terrific book. Its focus is on an (in)famous Texas quilter named Martha Mitchell, who lived in Huntsville Texas, after 'emigrating' from Kentuckyin 1939. The book is interspered with 'Martha-isms' that are both charming,witty, oldfashioned, yet surprisingly 'modern.' The book skips easily overtime and place, sometimes discussing her background and childhood, andother times, her marriage, career and rebelliousness towards some of theexpected womanly behaviors of the time. She was a naturally feisty woman,who only became moreso in her old age. The best part of the book, though,is the photography. In addition to photos of Martha at various stages inher life, it also includes over 30 full color photos of her quilts. Manyare close enough to see her quilting stitches, and some include herbeautiful hands as she worked on her quilts. This is a most charming bookabout a singularly charming woman. I heartily recommend it. As an aside,PBS did a documentary on Martha in 1985, which is still available onvideotape.

Martha Mitchell, story of a lifetime quilter
Interesting story, her first quilt at age 9 while living in Kentucky, inher lifetime she made over a 100 quilts, over 40 color pictures, and manyblack and white, also details the so called woman,s place such as herhusband did not want her to wear bright colors, etc. in Kentucky all thecivil service jobs at that time went to men, when she moved to Texas , shewas able to go to work right away. The pictures, tell the story moreaswell as the text.The quilts are mostly traditional patterns, she had avery creative touch. ... Read more