history

If you have ever eaten at the Inn at Little Washington then you know how fabulous the food is. Everything that enters your mouth is a masterpiece! This book contains some of Patrick O'connell's best recipes. Unlike some gourmet cookbooks, these recipes are easy to follow and "realistic." The photography is beautiful and accurately depicts the Virginia countryside. This is an excellent gift book, for yourself or your favorite cook!

Having eaten at the Inn twice, it's a real joy to have a cookbook that lets you experience at least part of the joy (the setting there is amazing) at home. O'Connell provides recipes for exotic dishes in a way that makes them accessible for any modestly adept cook. Nor is he pretentious at all - If you don't happen to have foie gras in the fridge for the tuna and foie gras dish, that fine he says. Leave it out.

The dishes are beautiful without being self-indulgently elaborate. The accompanying photos and narrative make it fun to read, but the real value is his practical explanations of how to make extraordinary dishes. Enjoy!

We had the pleasure of spending a weekend at the inn and on one of our 2 dinners there actually ate at the "chef's table" in the kitchen. While there we were able to sample a large portion of the menu and obtain an autographed copy of his cookbook. Upon returning home I assumed the recipes would be convoluted and difficult to follow. THIS IS NOT THE CASE! Patrick's recipes are clear, straight-forward and enable any cook with moderate kitchen skills to wonderfully replicate the dishes he serves at his fantastic inn! If you want to produce delicious dishes, with a hint of southern US, French & Italian influences then buy this book!!! You will not be disappointed & your guests will be amazed!

George Marsden has written an excellent biography of America's preeminent theologian. The work is an even-handed account not a romanticized version of Edwards' life. Still Edward's impeccable integrity, devotion to God and astounding mental aptitude shine through the pages of the book. We not only get a look at EdwardÕs life but the times and culture that produced him and the one he interacted with as a pastor and scholar. This work will be the litmus test for future works on Edwards and a model for other biographers on how to write a lifeÕs story. The prose is fluid and keeps the attention of the reader from the beginning to the end. I highly recommend that those interested in Jonathan Edwards to place this book at the top of their prospective reading list.

This excellent study on the greatest theologian/philosopher in American history is everything you would ever want in a good biography. George Marsden writes with an objective eye and at an even pace in this thoroughly researched, yet popularly written biography on Edwards. Much attention is given to the intellectual development of Edwards, and Marsden helps us see Edwards against the backdrop of the age in which he lived. There is also considerable focus on the Great Awakening, including the good, the bad, and the ugly. No one can understand Edwards without understanding something about the controversies in which he was enmeshed; and again, Marsden gives an objective account which is not unsympathetic to Edwards, but does not fail to recognize his feet of clay either. Towards the end of the book are several chapters introducing Edwards most important theological books, such as Freedom of the Will, Original Sin, History of Redemption, and The End for Which God Created the World. The book is carefully documented and indexed, but for all the detail it is an absolutely delightful read! I highly, highly recommend this book.

Marsden's book on Edwards is EXTREMELY important. In contrast with other biographies of Benjamin Franklin, Marsden paints not only a picture of a different man, but he also paints a portrait of a different America. Franklin represents the fully modern, secularist America, tempered by a practically utilitarian view of God. Edwards represents the finest Puritan vision of America as a model society founded on the principles of explict, heart-felt and biblical faith. Franklin welcomes the rationalism of the Enlightenment lock, stock, and barrel. Edwards in his Calvinism cautiously dialogues with modernism, quarrels within himself over the challenges of the Enlightenment, and yet in the final analysis rejects anything that veers away from enjoying the sweetness of God's presence in submitting to His absolute sovereignty .

Unfortunately, the autonomy of Franklin's vision of human freedom bristles at the confidence of Edwards' vision of God's transcedence. Hence, we have two Americas: a largely secularist ethos valuing human freedom, and a throughly evangelical and triumphial quest for a Christian nation. Every significant debate we have in our culture today -- from abortion to terrorism to feminism to gay marrage -- they all have their roots in the conflict between the worlds of Franklin and Edwards.

Yet I would venture that most Americans today -- even most American evangelicals today -- stand somewhere between Franklin and Edwards. Sadly though, we hear more about Franklin than we do Edwards, and the vision of Franklin's America is clearly winning out. This is tragic since Edwards shatters the myth that all conservative Christians are anti-intellectuals or narrow-minded bigots.

I really admire Edwards, but I must confess that I am still troubled by him. How was he able to really see the "sweetness" of God's presence in view of Calvinism's doctrine of God's inscrutable decrees? Marsden discusses this, but I wish there were more details there that addressed Edwards' change from being "horrified" by God's decrees to seeing something of the grand "sweetness" of God in them.

Edwards made his case well regarding his understanding of biblical faith, but he has not convinced everyone -- not the secularist nor even many evangelical Christians. Nevertheless, Edwards was certainly more right than he was wrong. We would do well to study him and learn what moved him passionately to write with conviction and clarity what he did.

This is not just another Holocaust book. Not just another narrative of tragic suffering and heroic survival. KONIN A Quest is a compelling historical research about a specific small town, Konin, located in western Poland. Konin is the town where the author, Theo Richmond's, family came from. Growing up in London, he heard and overheard stories his parents told about their home town. As a young person, wanting to fit in and be accepted by his peers, these stories barely interested if not embarrassed the young Richmond. As an adult he became curious about his parents' town and the result for us is this book.

We are told about the general history Konin and it's place in Polish history. Richmond gives us details about the Jewish settlement in the town; how in the year 1883 out of a total of 6500 residents 50 % were Jewish. Richmond's father, along with many others, left Konin in the early 1900's realizing what a bleak future awaited them in their native town.

Theo Richmond's quest is to recreate for his readers a feeling for what Konin was for it's Jewish citizens. He interviews almost every living person who once called Konin their home. (Only one Jewish woman returned to live in Konin after World War II.) He relates to us their most intimate memories regarding their families. He describes in detail the very well stocked Jewish lending library, occupations and professions of various individuals, the school system, the social structure etc. In each case the personalities of those involved are felt by the reader. When Richmond was lucky enough to meet the individuals who actually lived in Konin he conveys to us how the time spent there has influenced the rest of their lives. He relates to us the horrors experienced by many for the survivors of the holocaust and their dispair when returning to Konin at the end of World War II, to find that almost no one of their family or acquaintances had survived.

When I finished the book, and closed the back cover, I felt that I had been a part of this one town in Poland. I had met the actual people who had live there, known a part of their lives and felt their pain at having been uprooted and lost so much. The town of Konin has changed dramatically since the time when a large Jewish community was a part of its population but Theo Richmond has succeded in his quest to relay to the world what that town was like in a different era.

Konin, subtitled A Quest, is indeed exactly that. It is Theo Richmond's quest across time, place, culture, and humanity. It is his quest to learn where he came from, to understand the place his older relatives spoke of so often in his youth, but which he started out knowing rather little about.

Konin is the small Polish town from which Richmond's (originally Ryczke) family emigrated well before the Jewish community was all but destroyed. From the start, Richmond seeks to learn all he can of the town's history and people, particularly the Jewish people and their section of the town. Some of the text is the town's history dating back into the nineteenth century, and there is some mention of even earlier times, but mostly it is the stories told in the words of the surviving people.

Though some did not respond to his requests, Richmond found dozens of old Koniners whose memories seem crystal clear. And from this, we the readers build up a crystal clear picture of their lives in the community. Almost everything is told in stories, long or short, happy or sad, of life. True, in some sections Richmond includes his own narrative, but even there the stories of the people are interwoven into the tapestry. We do not learn about Konin so much as experience it, with all its goods and bads and excitements and boredoms. And as Richmond is no detached observer, we follow him as he passes back through time into pre-war Poland. He tells us not only who the people are then and now, but how he comes to meet them and the impressions they make.

As might be expected, many of the surviving Koniners experienced the Holocaust, or Shoah, firsthand. With their life in Konin and since comes their life during that horrid time. This is Richmond's quest into and away from humanity. Although many of these pages only touch on Konin in that they relate to Koniners, they make up some of the most gripping reading between these two covers. They are included, of course, to complete today's picture of the Konin community.

One need not be Jewish or knowledgeable of Jewish history (I am neither) to appreciate Konin. One need only appreciate good writing, which Richmond provides, gripping drama, which life provides, and a willingness to see the fascinating slice-of-life of a largely ordinary community that is Konin.

Yes, this is another Holocaust archival work and yes, it is brilliantly researched and written. But Richmond's crowning achievement, I propose, is his ability to create a lengthy work as this, about people many readers could never know, without ever letting it lapse into sentimentality or a wearisome litany of names, faces and facts. And yes, I have tearfully walked the streets of Konin with those Shoah survivors who now live in England, the US, and Israel. Richmond has ensured that the Nazi attempt to relegate Jewish Konin to oblivion has been thwarted. And we are much the better for it. "For the dead and the living we must bear witness." Thank you Mr Richmond. You have witnessed for the murdered of Kazimierz forest and all the other killing fields of Nazi Europe.

I never thought I would read, nevertheless enjoy, a book on math. This book is unquestionably one of the best works I have ever read on the sciences. Devlin writes in an uncannily concise and proficient style that actually makes the topic of math interesting and understandable to a lay person. Devlin intricately weaves history, mathematical concepts, and complex theories into a very readable text. (I did not think it could be done.)

The text is divided into eight sections ranging from numbers to astrophysics. While the book does build on the information offered in each chapter, it is not necessary to read the book in a linear fashion. Devlin makes it very easy to choose chapters of interest.

The first chapter deals with numbers. Ironically, we assume a lot about numbers when considering math. Devlin does an excellent job of defining what numbers are apart from the symbols we ascribe to them.

The second chapter provides a concise explanation of mathematical proofs, reason, and logic. Using his unique style, Devlin is able to cover this chapter with examples from classic math (algebra) to modern linguistic analysis. The latter is an excellent example of how Devlin applies math theories presented to natural real world examples.

Chapter 3 deals with the calculus. If you have ever asked: what is calculus used for, there is finally a concise, understandable presentation available in this chapter.

Chapter 4 refers to geometries. Devlin traces the evolution of geometries and provides a good introduction to dimensions beyond the third dimension. (These ideas are continued in Chapters 6 and 8.)

Chapter 5 is rather odd but seems to build on analyzing patterns in geometries. It treats topics like packing objects and snowflake patterns.

Chapter 6 is the most difficult chapter, in my opinion, but also the most rewarding. This chapter alone is well worth the book. If you ever wanted to understand donuts, coffee cups, manifolds, strings, and knots, this is an excellent chapter.

Chapter 7 is my favorite chapter. For once, someone has the insight to simply state that gambling and insurance are derived from the same origins. The chapter is an excellent treatment of regressions, means, and other "statistical" math.

Chapter 8 reminds me of Michiu Kaku. It takes many of the mathematical theories and information presented and applies it to modern scientific pursuits like gravity, relativity, and space time.

Keith Devlin is one of the best popular mathematics writers around, and this is one of his best works. The eight chapters cover number theory, set theory, calculus, group theory, topology, probability and the application of mathematics to the physical world. The discussion in each chapter, couched generally in English, not mathematics, is so clear that a math-phobic can understand it. By the end of each chapter a great deal of fascinating mathematics has been described, and in some cases the formal basis is sketched--but the emphasis is always on narration, and a lay reader who doesn't even want to understand mathematics can still read this and get a sense of the dramatic history of mathematics.

Devlin states at the end that he decided to exclude many areas of mathematics in order to focus more effectively on what he did cover. As a result there is little or no coverage of chaos theory, game theory, catastrophe theory, or a long list of other topics. The fact is there will always be holes in a book this size--mathematics has expanded so much in the last hundred years that even a book ten times this size could barely survey it. The decision to focus was a good one, and the subjects chosen are good: the truly exciting stories are here: Archimedes, Fermat, Gauss, Galois, Riemann, Wiles, and many more.

Potential purchasers should note, by the way, that this book was reworked from Devlin's "Mathematics: The Science Of Patterns". In Devlin's words (not from either book): "The Language of Mathematics is a restructuring of Science of Patterns that omits most of the color illustrations (a minus) but has two new chapters covering topics not in Science of Patterns (a plus). If you want lots of color, go for patterns; Language of Mathematics covers more ground." I've read both, and I have to say they're both worth getting. The two new chapters in this book are the ones on probability and the applications of mathematics in science; they're well done and interesting. However, the pictures in Science of Patterns are very high quality.

They're both fine books, and I can strongly recommend each of them. If you have to get one, I'd say get Science of Patterns. Even though Language of Mathematics does have some colour plates, Science of Patterns is really a gorgeous book to read with many good illustrations. I ended up buying both, and you may end up doing that too.

Devlin: "The particular topics I have chosen are all central themes within mathematics... But the fact is, I could have chosen any collection of seven or eight general areas and told the same story; That mathematics is the science of patterns, and those patterns can be found anywhere you care to look for them, in the physical universe, in the living world, or even in our own minds. And that mathematics serves us by making the invisible visible."
At this writing it has been more than a few years since my last class in mathematics. But I liked math as a student and still do, even at the point that notation and degree of abstraction begins to hurt my head, so to speak, I still like it. There is a solidity and a beauty in mathematics that eclipses the empirical sciences. It is not only the practical applicability, logical purity, and beauty of mathematics that interest me, it is also its very immateriality. As Devlin states, "music exists not on the printed page, but in our minds. The same is true for mathematics; the symbols on a page are just a representation of the mathematics."
This is a wonderful book. Before 1900, mathematics could be wholly categorized within about a dozen subjects. While advances are still being made in some of these older disciplines -- Devlin discusses how developments in number theory are being applied to encryption for such purposes as banking security -- there are now at least 60-70 somewhat distinct disciplines of mathematics. The author reveals the logical foundations, history, and current applications of number theory, mathematical logic, the calculus, relativistic geometry, topology, and probability. Applications of mathematics to such seemingly far-flung fields as linguistics, electrodynamics, and astrophysics are briefly but aptly considered. He introduces us to the patterns and progressions of perceptive minds, from the Pythagoreans, Platonists, and Peripatetics, to Pascal and Penrose, with glances at Galileo, Gauss and Godel. [Okay, enough alliteration ... just having a little fun with patterns; and patterns, as Devlin instructs, is precisely what mathematics is all about.]

This isn't really that bad a book. The text was well written for each individual mentioned and the photographs were quite good, my favorite was the one with Mikhail Gorbachev hand feeding a squirrel on a tree. Still, there are certain individuals this book left out who I thought should have made it. Below is a list of those who I feel should have been in this book.

Pope John Paul II
Nikita Khruschtev
J. Edgar Hoover
Ayatollah Khomeni
Wayne Gretzky
Vince Lombardi
Howard Stern
Jimi Hendrix
Thelonius Monk
The Red Baron, Manfred von Richthofen
Lenny Bruce
George S. Patton
Joe Montana
Gloria Steinman
Janis Joplin
Harrison Ford
Irving Berlin
Bill Clinton
Charles Manson
Howard Cosell

The book was representative of true icons in our century,though other African Americans such as Jimi Hendrix , Sidney Poitier, and Diana Ross were worthy of inclusion as opposed to Michael Jackson or Oprah Winfrey.The information accompanying each icon was valuable as well,because there were several I was not familiar with.

But, alas, too American in the perspective. The selection includes people who are only of importance in the U.S. area. I.e. baseball & football players and t.v. entertainers (Oprah!)And in choosing Oppenheimer and Fermi instead of the far more important Niels Bohr. Further, Karen Blixen is presented by her alias Isak Dinesen - quite embarassing. The photos, though, are phantastic and the layout creative. In spite of an American chauvenism in the selection, the book makes a brilliant statement heading for the millennium.

This book should be every improvisers bible. As if Impro wasn't enough, Johnstone's new book focuses solely on improv, while his last dealt a great deal with his personal past and teachings. Johnstone describes tons of incredible short-form games, which could all be used in developing a long-form troupes unity and confidence. There is not much else to say, but if you consider yourself an improviser this book should live on your bedstand.

Keith Johnstone's earlier work, IMPRO, has influenced and will continue to influence the way acting and improvisation for the theatre are taught. IMPRO is a book not only about theatre and improv, but about teaching and human interaction, loaded with insights making that book highly suitable for the general reader.

This follow-up is more specialized: a handbook for putting IMPRO into practice, including detailed improv structures for performance and for rehearsal, and chapters on how to teach these games. Sample run lists and notes from performances impart Johnstone's experiences, trials and errors over many years teaching in several countries. The book is exhaustive and beautifully written, but for the general reader, IMPRO is more appropriate.

One disappointment about the book is some sloppy copy-editing. It is rife with typos, of the sort that are not picked out by a computer spell-checker since the typos form actual words.

The title IMPRO FOR STORYTELLERS is, as Tim Sheppard pointed out below, potentially misleading. This is not a book that will help a solo performer generate material, though some of the exercises within can be translated for that purpose. Johnstone's concern is that improv not be restricted to a form of "light entertainment" (think "Who's Line Is It Anyway?"), but as a way of generating narrative and using it to explore human relationships.

I thought that Keith Johnstone's first book "Impro" was the best book on Improv -- until I read this. Impro For Storytellers is chock full of imaginative games that will make any improv workshop (or communications training) sparkle with creative fun and learning by taking the pressure off of being creative.

If you want the best collection of improv games since Spolins "Improvisation for the Theatre", this is it. Johnstone paces the book with wonderful stories of how the games have been used under all sorts of circumstances, with a brilliant and dry sense of wit. If you are interested in improv, please read this book!

In his book Mr. Parker tell us how hard was the war in Vietnam through his owm tenure in the US Army. It's a so interesting book that reflects the experiences of a man proud of his country but with a clear idea about the things which went wrong there. For me the most interesting part in this book is when he write about his CIA tour in Laos and Vietnam.

Last Man Out: A Personal Account of the Vietnam War by James E. Parker, Jr. is the best book I've read in a long time. If this author didn't have a tape recorder or a diary that he wrote in everyday then I have to say he has a most remarkable memory. James takes the reader back to his home in North Carolina and introduces his family and friends. He continues as he makes the decision to enlist in the Army at a time when others were already doing everything they could to avoid serving their country. The reader goes through Basic Training with James and his buddies at Fort Gordon, Georgia in February 1964. Two months later after being named "Outstanding Trainee" James reiterates some of his time while at his Advanced Infantry Training. You are there when he signs up for Officer Candidate School and while he waited to be selected. You go through that six-month course with him too beginning in November at Fort Benning, Georgia. Upon graduation James goes to Jump School. From there the book gets even better. James first Permanent Party duty station was at Fort Riley, Kansas with the 1st Infantry Division. Then through his Tour of Duty in Vietnam. James told about an encounter with General William Westmoreland following a mission. The general flew in to review the troops, present medals and then was gone. It was a mere media event. When the general departed, another officer walked the line and took back the medals. After Nam James next assignment took him to Fort Ord in Monterey, California. He became the Officer-in-Charge of the 6th Army Area Drill Sergeant School. It was a great assignment. BUT James was thinking about leaving the Army but he "felt guilty about forsaking my duty, abandoning my obligation to country at a time of war." Unable to find a job that suited him he applied for and was accepted as a member of the Central Intelligence Agency. By September 1971 James was headed back to Southeast Asia "as a case officer in the Lao program, the CIA's largest covert operation." James was involved with several operations before heading stateside in 1973. He spoke openly about them. By January 1975 James was the only American left in Vi Thanh province. At that point he secured himself a "bodyguard." James wrote of the fall of Ban Me Thout, Hue, Da Nang, and Saigon. He took part in the evacuation of the Vietnamese who worked as agents for the CIA. He spoke of the problems encountered onboard the USS Vancouver and the transfer to the USNS Pioneer Contender. James Parker Jr. wrote an incredible account of his military and civilian service to our country and the people of South Vietnam. It is a book well worth reading. I'm glad I had the opportunity to meet the author in person in 1998. AND I'm glad I took the time to read his book. You will be also.

From the humorous to the horrific...from tragedy to triumph...and a somber assessment of what really happened in Southeast Asia, this short and powerful book is essential reading for those considering work in the patriotic service.

I will not spend a lot of time writing about how valuable a reference this is - the other reviewers on this site have already more than done it justice. Aside from the relative lack of material on early Zionism (also pointed out by one of the other reviewers), this book has most if not all of the relevant documents. I have only one major criticism (the reason I gave the book four stars instead of 5): the almost complete lack of information about the original sources. Apart from a one-liner preceding each document, no information is given regarding 1) the citation of the original work, including page numbers, where appropriate; 2) the language in which the original work was written; 3) if the work was not written in English, credit for the translation, the date thereof, etc. While these may not be of interest to the casual reader, to anyone doing research in the field, if only for a college paper, these details are critical. Furthermore, in an area as controversial as the Arab-Israeli conflict, the ability to trace documents back to the original and verify translations is everything.

The book is simply a collection of documents on the Arab-Israeli conflict, dating back to the British Mandate in Palestine. The editors included all the important papers such as the Balflour Declaration, the "White Paper," various UN declarations, and speeches made by both Arab and Israeli leaders. The latest documents it contains are those covering the Camp David meetings between President Clinton, barak, and Arafat near the end of Clinton's presidency. While it is not a history of the conflict (merely a collection of historical documents), it certainly can provide you with plenty of info on the subject.

What else can be said about a book that contains every UN and League of Nations document about the Israel-Palestine conflict? It is a necessity as a reference for those engaged and a great book to learn about the conflict and its basic political evolution.

Bob Burns has written a wonderful little book titled, "It Came From Bob's Basement." This book is chronicle of a moment in time that has long since passed from our lives, but we can always take a moment to revisit. Bob grew up in the 1930's when many things, which we now take for granted, were in their infancy. Before video games, and a color television in every home, a child was more innocent; their imaginations were fueled more by a sense of wonder in discovering the world around them.

We seem to lose that innocence much earlier every generation, Bob has never lost it. He chronicles his awe as he discovers movies such as King Kong, which so captured his imagination that it set a path for his life's destiny, and became part of a lifelong fascination with science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Bob has worn many hats in his life, follow him as he changes from Major Mars, a live matinee host for children, to Bob Burns the contributor to many memorable horror movies of the 50's and 60's. Bob's fascination with movies has led him to many strange roads, and contributed to his ever-growing list of friends, some of whom are very well known. Over the years Bob has collected a multitude of movie props, many of which were given to him by his friends in the industry, a lot of these appear as gorgeous photographs in Bob's Book. A movie that I loved as a boy growing up in Southern California, was the Time Machine. This movie was so special to me, that when I see it today, I still see it through the eyes of the child that I was back then. Bob has the fully restored Time Machine prop in his collection, he not only includes photographs, but he tells the fascinating tale of how the studios put it on the auction block, and sold it to the highest bidder. Despondent, Bob told his good friend George Pal, (The man who directed the Time Machine, and many other excellent films.), who assured him that he would one day find it, since he was meant to have it. Many people over the years have had the opportunity to visit Bob's Basement, and view not only the "Time Machine," but all of his other movie props and memorabilia, and listen as he tells the stories behind each one of them. For those of you who have never had this wonderful opportunity, Bob has created this book for you, as he invites you to come in, sit down, and visit with him in his basement.

It Came From Bob's Basement is one of those books that I look at over and over again. Not only are the images terrific, but the writing is exceptional. Apart from Bob Burns' incomparable passion for these icons of science fiction culture, what really emerges for me is a very accurate portrayal of Mr. Burns' big heart and generosity. Bob's intention was never to make money from his collection but rather to be a museum director and caretaker of priceless relics that millions of people have seen in many of the world's greatest films. Now, with the publication of this book, everyone has an opportunity to see these items first hand and I would highly recommend they do so!

This book is a lot of fun. Bob Burns is one of the greatest collectors of movie memorablia. After reading this book, I've decided I want to hang out in his basement.
The anecdotes make this a fun read and the pictures are fantastic.

Caroline Miller's Lamb In His Bosom is a truly beautiful read. The unforgettable characters, the story line, the beautiful prose and dialect, all these make it the perfect book about the South and Southerners.
The book is set in Georgia about twenty years before the War Between the States, and eventually leads up to the War. The story revolves around the life and thoughts of Cean Smith (nee Carver), and how she manages as a young wife and mother in the Georgia backwoods. Her life is marked by hard work, love for her husband, and birthing, raising, and burying her babies.
I was first struck by the dialect. The more I read, the more I recognized my own mother's speech patterns and idioms. I should have expected as much, seeing as she was born and raised in a Kentucky holler, in a situation not far removed from that of Lamb's Cean and Lonzo. From the book's excellent afterward (which describes Miller's research technique), as well as from numerous contemporaneous reviews, the dialect in Lamb is probably the best record available of pre-War Between the States Southern speech, and the book therefore has historical value. Attempts by authors to portray "Southern-speak" usually come off as irritating, even insulting, poor imitations of a "Hee-Haw" script. But Miller makes the dialect not only effective, she makes it beautiful and even honorable.
The story line has several elements to commend the book. First is the utter believablity of the situations. There is nothing outrageous about the vicissitudes encountered by these characters. The power of the story is contained in large measure in the very plainess of life in the setting. Life for these folks is a few years of hard toil to scratch out an existence that is punctuated by brief moments of happiness and made joyful by enduring family ties and precious generational memories. Most prevalent in the story is the ubiquitous presence of death, which spares neither the elderly, the middle-aged, and especially the children and babies. The story made me remember the grave yards at my Alma Mater in southern Virginia, where the grave markers tell a story of a time when families had more deceased children than most people today have living relatives. And in this is the Southern heart most eloquently displayed in Lamb, for every passing is, of course, cause for mourning, but is also occasion to remember the blessing that death has become, as it is the Door that leads to the long hoped for encounter with the Great Maker, Redeemer, and Disposer of All. In Lamb, dread death is not feared as it gives way to Blessed Transfiguration.
Lamb In His Bosom has a rightful place in the Southern Canon. The story is unique; it has no real plot sublety or intricacy; it has none of disturbing Gothicity of O'Connor, none of the flagellation of Faulkner, none of the contrived humor of Welty. This in NO WAY is a diminution of those great Southern writers. Rather, it is a confirmation of the Southern Character and Ethos of seeing God and nature as good and living in close connection to both even in the face of hardship and death, loving our living, and honoring our dead. Lamb In His Bosom deserves to read, carefully and quietly. It is a book that is beautifully simple and simply beautiful, just like the South and Southerners.

I read this book years ago... as a college project to read classic, but little known writers. It was often called "THE POOR MAN'S GONE WITH THE WIND". It has the flavor of the recent book, COLD MOUNTAIN because it does not romantize the South or the Civil War. The writing is very descriptive and the pity is that Caroline Miller never wrote another book.

Lamb in His Bosom! What do you think, when you first hear this title? Most people just think Lamb in His Breast. And for the people who just look at the cover, and don't look at the book ever again, that is all it means. However, if you actually read the book based in Southern Georgia, you learn it's a lot more. You learn that the book travel's through Cean, her husband Lonzo, and the rest of her family; it is a journey for the reader to embark on, one that they will never forget.

The story starts out twenty or so years before the Civil War and ends at the end of the Civil War. Through out the novel, you become very close to Cean, and her family which varies so differently person to person. Caroline Miller, the author, write so beautifully in the novel that the black marks on the page seem like people standing next to you for the past twenty years. You'll find yourself slumped in your chair crying over sad events, and at other times on the edge of your seat in great anxiety to move on.

Perhaps it is not just the characters that draw you into the book, but the stories/lessons you get from the book. This book is not like the classic type of story with a begining, middle, and end. It is more of just a lot of small stories, so wonderfully woven into one big story. You can tell Miss Miller spent much time writing this, and it took many interviews with people to get the story just the way she wanted it.

One last thing I want to comment on before I wrap this review up, is the use of language in the novel. To put it plain and simple, a historian of the pre-Civil War times put Caroline Miller's Lamb in His Bosom, as the "most accurate literature of the time."

Overall, the book is terrific. The only bad thing about the novel, is that it ends. Though it is a lengthy 340+ page book, you'll find yourself staying up countless amounts of hours, just reading "one more chapter." It is a shame that this, along with one more novel was the only novels that Caroline Miller had published, though she reportedly had manuscripts never published.