I am drawn to books that analyze the complex relationship between people and places. Brooks Blevins illuminates the Arkansas Ozarks both as a place and as an idea, and shows the tensions that emerge when a place becomes an idea. The book's subtitle suggests that it is a history, which it is, but I found it intriguing more as a history of the idea of place in general than as the history of a specific region.

Blevins shows the Ozarks where 19th century settlers and their descendents farmed cotton, harvested timber, made barrels, and did other work that drew from the region's resources. Yet, none of these economies was successful on a large scale. The real place was too disconnected, with its interruptive hills, streams and hollows, to allow for large-scale production. With the exception of the far northwest plains areas near Fayetteville, the region never experienced significant economic growth. Farming needed to grow in scale to succeed (hence today's agribusiness), but these hills did not offer enough open expanse to make such farming profitable or even technologically possible. Many left the region for opportunities picking apples in Washington state or cotton in the Delta.

Those remaining adapted by marketing the idea of the Ozarks as place--in this case, a traditional Americana of banjos, fiddles, and homespun crafts. Entrepreneurs with an eye on the tourism industry sold Eureka Springs, Mountain View, and other Ozark towns as centers of Americana folk tourism. Tension grows in Blevin's book toward the later chapters when we see the people having to emulate folk music and craft traditions that were steeped in a romantic idea held by a nation that had left such quaintness behind.

Blevins suggests that residents were displaced by immigrants from the Midwest and elsewhere who were more willing than the locals to play the parts required by this idea of folk Americana. Middle class white retirees from troubled cities in the South and Midwest and elsewhere have moved into the Ozarks, perhaps in search of this illusive idea of a more simple life. It is the same comforting world that has lured world weary music buyers to the soundtrack of "O Brother, Where Art Thou?

The most obvious characteristic of the postmodern time in which we live is that image is reality. The idea of France as portrayed in Disney theme parks, for example, is as real as France itself and less messy. This is an age of simulacra. Blevins' book does not directly make such cultural critiques, but leads the reader to them. Having just spent a relaxing week in the Ozarks, soaking up the music and culture, I then was left to question what I had experienced. The three musicians I played guitar with in front of the grocery store in Marshall-were they doing so because they wanted to or because a larger idea of place engulfed them and tacitly directed their behavior to conform with its folk tourism economy?

In the end perhaps it doesn't matter. My new friends seemed genuinely happy and invigorated by their region's musical identity. A region could be known for worse things than great music. And the Ozarks is the home of Wal-Mart, perhaps the most obvious example of mass marketing economic success.

For contrast, go to the Florida Keys and watch the bored pseudo parrot heads churn out plastic versions of old Jimmy Buffet tunes. Here the idea of place becomes stifling, preventing the natural evolution of a society. And the sheer number of tourists landing for an hour or two on cruise ships has driven locals to the role either of acting out Buffet-like parts or hiding. Blevins' book makes us aware that regions that become too closely identified with a particular mythology can become prisoners of that mythology. He implies that such has happened in the Ozarks, but I see enough vibrancy and cultural authenticity (whatever that may be) to feel comfortable with this idea of place. It is one I will return to, albeit with a slightly more critical ear and eye.

Hill Folks: A History Of Arkansas Ozarkers And Their Image by Brooks Blevins (Professor of History, Ozarka College, Melbourne, Arkansas) is an informed and informative cultural history of the Ozark region that ranges from northern Arkansas down to southern Missouri, and the people who have settled and lived there since the early nineteenth century. A detailed portrait of a land and its people, filled with subtle nuances of daily life through the centuries, Hill Folks is a fascinating study and very enjoyable reading, and a highly recommended addition to Ozark and Arkansas history supplemental reading lists and academic reference collections.

This book will make you look at your Appalachian surroundings like you never have before. With some information about the broad mountain vistas(forest canopy, common large animal species, etc), this book specializes on intimate looks at the amazing flora and fauna details of the woods (Jack in the Pulpits, wild Orchids, Salamanders, Fireflies, etc.) It is an interesting and itriguing study of Appalachian ecology. This isn't a textbook, but it does involve a bit of scientific jargon, some detailed scientific concepts, and a rather impressive vocabulary. However, each chapter is a short vinette and the author is careful to summarize major themes in the final paragraph of each story. You are gaureeted to take away some new concept and to look at the world around you a bit more carefully.

After reading this book, I had a new appreciation for the Appalachian ecosystem. Every tree, every bird, every insect holds secrets of its adaptation within this ecosystem. Every chapter of this book summarizes studies pertaining to a topic, such as the politics of mixed-species bird flocks or the demographics of box turtles. Everyone who lives in, visits, or conducts business in the Appalachian system should read this book.

I had low expectations for this when I ordered it. I figured it would be one of those overly general "how to" books that leave out much of the important information. I was surprised to find that it has very specific plans for a variety of garden situations, plans which already show specific groupings of specific plants.

I found this very helpful because I'm not particularly experienced in designing a landscape, nor am I wealthy enough to afford a landscape designer. There is a design for every corner of my new house, tailored to sunlight, etc. I can follow the plans verbatim and end up with a landscape that looks like it was professionally designed, or I can make small changes to personalize it. This is, as the previous reviewer commented, much easier than starting from scratch.

Definately worth the money.

THE BACKGROUND: I know next to nothing about plants, and what little I do know is mainly for plants that grow well in the Deep South, where I grew up. I now have a cute house with a remarkably boring yard 2500 miles away from the "Deep South" - in Seattle, to be exact.

THE GOAL: create some nice-looking, *low maintenance* landscaping for the yard, but without having to become an avid amateur gardener, carpenter or landscape designer.

THE TECHNIQUE: as is my style, I go in for complete overkill and immediately buy a dozen books on the subject of landscaping and gardening - must be thorough in my research, you understand. I pour through them, make lists, check with local nurseries, draw detailed plans, etc., and after many hours of work and decision-making, finally decide what to buy and where to plant them.

THE RESULT: 90% of the plants I finally choose as appropriate to the area, low maintenance, and nifty looking, are in this ONE BOOK already, and there were plenty of others in this one book that could have substituted for the remaining 10%. My planting layouts also fairly strongly resemble several of the suggested layouts detailed in this book.

THE LESSON: Should have started and stopped with this one. I coulda fit in tuba lessons or something!

Buy this book, Cascadia gardeners and landscapers! It's what you need! Oh, and it also has tons of useful information on creating walls, fences, gates, paths, garden layouts, pruning, planting, etc.

VERY highly recommended.

I found this book in the library and after renewing it 3 times figured I'd better just buy it. I've checked out many garden plan books, but this one had the info I needed to plan for different seasons, how the plans would look in a few years, and what I needed to maintain the plants. It's specific to the Southeast so I don't waste time on plants that won't work for me. It's a great idea source and reference.

This book is an excellent guide for the new or veteran homeowner. It's filled with lots of ideas and a variety of plants including trees, shrubs, perennials, groundcovers and a few annuals. It offers a samples of typical planting scenarios for the home landscaper. Identifying each design as good for sun or shade and showing the variations is one of the best features. Seasonal variations are also helpful. But the best feature is that it clearly diagrams the placement of each plant including distance from the structure and distance from each other. Drawings and actual photographs of plants are also helpful. I highly recommend this book for the new or renovating landscaper.

Return to Stony Clove again. This time Eileen Charbonneau centers around a young girl who searches for her kidnapped friend. The friend is a free black woman who is captured and returned to a life of slavery. Young Lily Woods begins the hunt to rescue her friend. A touching story for all races to show how the underground railroad helped save many.

***Teachers should pay close attention to this one. Perhaps some should consider making it a required read sometime during the school year.***

This book brings the Woods trilogy to a close--one which the reader is reluctant to see! Lily Woods is 15 when she is forced to confront harsh issues diving the country in 1851. When slavecatchers arrive in the community, Lily learns that her family has been involved in the Underground Railroad. Lily decides to risk her own safety in order to help, only to find herself in the middle of a riverboat wreck. Charbonneau deftly adds a touch of the supernatural to this engrossing tale. Honor to the Hills was recently chosen for the prestigious "Notable Children's Trade Books in the Field of Social Studies" list, compiled by The Children's Book Council and the National Council for the Social Studies

A young and inexperienced priest arrives to an old and aristocratic house which is in clear falling in pieces. He strongly feels that the state of the house is the consequence of the moral decay of its owner who is a good for nothing, solely interested in hunting activities and who had a bastard son with the maid of the house.

The priest believes that the sacrament of matrimony, will render the fruits upon Señor de Ulloa soul and sets hmself the goal of finding him a bride suitable for such high designations. The Marquis due to quite distorted reasoning ends up choosing a cousin who is not very attractive and a little weak istead of the one he was really attracted to.

The aims of the priest clash head to head wih the long term plans of Primitivo a sort of family housekeeper with a self appointed position who have been stealing the proceeds of the hacienda's and is waiting for the proper moment to take full control of the Marquis de Ulloa's land properties. At that moment will become due when Spain is shaken by liberal movements and the novelty of the democratic process.

The role of women on this novel shall not go unnoticed, since both the maid and the aristocratic lady of the house are also a reflection of the era which is gaining momentum Spain and it is reflected on the health of both ladies and in which the Spaniars were simultaneously spectators and protagonists as well as in the sexual preferences of the Marquis de Ulloa.

Emilia Pardo Bazán stands as perhaps the Spanish speaking world's greatest woman novelist. Along with Galdos and Clarín she was one of the three most important writers of late 19th century Spain. An intellectual of astounding breadth, she was the leading exponent of the Naturalist literary school in her country, -- as attested by her numerous theoretical wrtitings on the subject -- and was an outspoken feminist. She also wrote the first review of Darwin's _Origin of the Species_ to appear in print in Spain.

_The House of Ulloa_ is the work of fiction for which she is best known, and is also the work which perhaps best illustrates Pardo Bazán's own peculiar and unorthodox conception of Naturalism. A primitive and violent rural countryside provides the setting for the novel. When Julian, a cultured and somewhat effeminate priest arrives at the house of the Marquis of Ulloa, he discovers a brutish place which is physically falling prey to creeping nature. Weeds and plants have encroached on the property and whole sections of the once magnificent manor have fallen into disrepair. Julian attempts to "save" the Marquis by marrying him to a city dwelling cousin. The plan, however, does not sit well with Primitivo, the Marquis' ruthless and violent butler. Primitivo excercises a defacto control over the Marquis' property and finances, and is alarmed by the intrusion of the new inhabitants. His opposition is heightened by the fact that the Marquis has borne an illegitimate child of Primitivo's daughter and the new arrivals threaten his grandson's eventiual claims to inheritance. Thus the stage is set for a powerful and cruel denouement.

This textbook is very easy to follow. I am glad that I purchased this book.

This book was very easy to read, the examples made clear sense to the topic. It would be nice if your web site address was easy to find, it was not stated in the book.

Set in rural Kentucky around WWII, this book is so good, it should replace Huckelberry Finn as "the great american novel". It is ashamed that it isn't better known, but unfortunately Arnow-Simpson is thought of as a regional writer. This is a very deep book, but it also has some very funny parts. Her description of pre-consumerism country life is very detailed and insightful. She saw how the world was changing, and captured a piece of it that is now long gone. I'm not even an hunting type, and I wanted to go out and get a couple of hounds after reading this. Better even than The Dollmaker, and not half as sad. Highly Recommended!

This book captures the spirit, character, and complexities of the mountain people of eastern Kentucky better than any other I have read. The individuals are simple, strong-willed, and proud like many of the people I grew up with. The descriptions of the landscape are detailed, accurate, and compelling as I remember them. For anyone interested in a better understanding of the depth of human character explained in a very readable way, this is a terrific book

This is a wonderfully exciting account of the career of a scientist and explorer who, unfortunately for him, happened to be the wrong thing (Italian) at the wrong time. The author makes a good case for giving Umberto Nobile credit for being the first man to cross over the North Pole by air (in a balloon!), yet rather than being hailed in his country, he was practically court-marshalled. A reminder of the important role government plays in either fostering or undermining its citizens' genius.

This book has everything you'd want in a good read. The subject piques your interest, and the story itself, as well as the author's excellent writing style, compels you on. I would recommend it also as a book likely to help foster an interest in history and technology in young people. It's a story you'll never forget.

The Story of the airship Italia and her crash in the arctic in 1928 is an incredible tale that brings together many personalities from the surrounding nations. The author puts you inside the minds of the chief characters involved, while not forsaking a complex story of early aviation, with it's limitations. The redemption of Umberto Nobile, the captain of the airship, is dealt with, as well as the distortions that the political forces of Fascist Italy brought to bear against this martyr to airship exploration.

This book should be in all school libraries. The excellent illustrations bring the accurate text to life in a compelling way. I give 2-3 hr presentations in French or English as a voyageur. This book certainly covers more than I can in such a way. I would recommend it whole-heartedly as background for anyone interested in the period and the characters.

Every spring in the late 1700's canoes would leave from Quebec and head for upper Lake Superior. At the same time trappers from deep in the central and Rocky Mountain regions of Canada would head for the same location with the fruits of their trapping labors over the winter. They would meet for a couple of weeks of trading and partying. Then they would laboriously paddle back to where they had come from.

Howard Silvertson captures this time with short clear descriptions and beautiful watercolors that really make the history come alive. It is a part of history that is often forgotten. It's fascinating to imagine what it was like to live in those times. This book captures the feeling. This book should be in every school library.