State & Local Books - Page 12

Rain of Gold

Víctor E. Villaseñor

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 103 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Rain of Gold 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

I am a 57 year old gringo living in Southern Arizona and received this book from a friend of mine who is related to the author. I did not expect much and the beginning had me wondering if I would make it through all 500+ pages of small print. It did not take very long for me to realize that this book was well above ordinary. Prior to reading this book, I personally had gotten the most enjoyment from " East of Eden " and " The Agony and The Ecstacy " and place Mr. Villasenor's novel along side both. I cried and laughed like hell and as a lifelong Catholic, was deeply moved by the incredible faith of both of his grandmothers. Some of the other reviewers were put off by his technique, I was not. I very much agree with those who found great enjoyment from this book, as I had a difficult time putting it down and experienced a real sadness as I read the final words, I did not want it to end. Mr. Victor Villasenor is one heck of a storyteller and I feel blessed to have entered into his family through his written words.

John Towle - Vail, Az.

Editorial Review:

Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Golden Plunger Awards (Uncle John's Bathroom Reader)

Bathroom Readers' Institute

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

When Someone Wins a Golden Plunger Award, Do You Congratulate Them or Offer Condolences!?! 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

To the list of illustrious awards - the Pulitzer, Nobel Peace Prize, Oscar, Emmy, Tony, etc. - we now have to make room on the mantle for the 'Golden Plunger' award! Uncle John and his Bathroom Reader Institute decided to "celebrate...unsung heroes (and) enduring, odd and obscure marvels from ancient history all the way to today" through the creation and awarding of the Golden Plunger award. It's hard to believe civilization made it this far without it!

Within GOLDEN PLUNGER AWARDS' 328 pages are 18 categories: Ad Game, Creature Features, If You Build It, Artistes, Mixed Bag, Creepy Crawlies, Comic Genius, Go Green, Sports, What to Wear, Some of Our Favorite People, That's History, Some Things to Nibble On, Let Us Entertain You, Words to the Wise, Pop Culture, Science and At the Movies. Within each category are three to 13 winners, each winner being described in two-three pages. Be forewarned: The book abounds in 'punny' titles.

For instance: The Think Outside the Bottle Award (goes to) Champagne in a Can; The Making Faces Award (to) Forensic Artists; The Be Hair Now Award, Dreadlocks; Teenager of the Year Award, King Tut; The I Spy Award, Benedict Arnold; The 'Second Banana' Award, Emma Peel (YES!); The Fashion on a Roll Award, Toilet Paper Wedding Gowns and Duct Tape Prom Dresses; The Shoe-Biz Award, Crocs; The Goat Busters Award, Buzkashi; The Comeback Award, Cyrogenics; The Product Placement Award, Human Billboards; The Sultry Voice Award, Lauren Bacall; Let Your Fingers Do the Talking Award, Rudest Hand Gestures; and so on.

It's all harmless fun and educational in its own way. GOLDEN PLUNGER AWARDS is the perfect "I've got an hour to kill at lunch" book; trivia buffs and anyone interested in pop culture will enjoy this book. Recommended.

Editorial Review:

And the Golden Plunger goes to…

Forget about the Oscars, Grammys, and Golden Globes. After two decades of producing interesting, entertaining, and mind-boggling stories, Uncle John has come up with his own unique opinions about what deserves an award. So he recruited the dedicated staff at the BRI to compile this collection of 100 things he deems award-worthy.

Here are just a few of the Golden Plunger Awards Uncle John is giving out: Scrumptious Cookie, Baseball’s Unbelievable Blunder, Versatile Condiment, Enduring Sports Rivalry, Stinkiest Cheese, American Dream Hero, Memorable Commercial, Classic Cocktail, Essential Bathroom Accessory, Oldest Con, Supreme Sex Symbol, Breakthrough Graphic Novel, Inspirational Speech, Intriguing Unsolved Mystery, and Best Tattoo.

Houses of the Founding Fathers

Hugh Howard

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Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> Revolution & Founding -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

When they declared independence in Philadelphia in 1776, they changed the course of Western history. But the patriots—landowners, merchants, and professional men who hailed from towns, cities, and plantations scattered along the eastern seaboard—had private lives too, quite apart from the public deeds we know so well. In this breathtaking volume, historian Hugh Howard and photographer Roger Straus examine the everyday lives of the Founding Fathers.

Houses of the Founding Fathers takes us on an eye-opening tour of forty stately eighteenth-century houses. We see the mansions of such legendary figures as Jefferson, Washington, Adams, and Hamilton, along with the homes of many other signers of the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution. At sites from Maine to Georgia, with stops in each of the thirteen colonies, the grand story of the Revolution emerges from unique and individual domestic perspectives.

Houses overlooking the sea, in busy townscapes, or atop mountains reveal these patriots’ tastes in architecture, furniture, and horticulture. There are tales of friends and enemies, murderous relatives, reluctant revolutionaries, adoring wives, and runaway servants. The founding families are brought to life in the rituals of birth and death, the food they ate, the archaic medical practices they endured, their household arrangements, and the way their slaves lived.

Houses of the Founding Fathers offers a penetrating look at the private lives of the men whose ideas ignited an insurrection against England—and who helped create the modern world.

Dark Alliance : The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion

Gary Webb

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 54 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Dark Alliance is a book that should be fiction, whose characters seem to come straight out of central casting: the international drug lord, Norwin Meneses; the Contra cocaine broker with an MBA in marketing, Danilo Blandon; and the illiterate teenager from the inner city who rises to become the king of crack, "Freeway" Ricky Ross. But unfortunately, these characters are real and their stories are true.

In August 1996, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Gary Webb stunned the world with a series of articles in the San Jose Mercury News reporting the results of his year-long investigation into the roots of the crack cocaine epidemic in America, specifically in Los Angeles. The series, titled "Dark Alliance," revealed that for the better part of a decade, a Bay Area drug ring sold tons of cocaine to Los Angeles street gangs and funneled millions in drug profits to the CIA-backed Nicaraguan Contras.

Now Gary Webb has pushed his investigation even further in his book, Dark Alliance: The CIA, The Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion. Drawing from recently declassified documents, undercover DEA audio and videotapes that have never been publicly released, federal court testimony, and interviews, Webb demonstrates how our government knowingly allowed massive amounts of drugs and money to change hands at the expense of our communities. Congressional inquiries into these allegations are ongoing; results of the internal investigations by both the CIA and the Justice Department are pending.

A Year by the Sea

Joan Anderson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 126 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Now available in paperback, the entrancing story of how one woman's journey of self-discovery gave her the courage to persevere in re-creating her life.

Life is a work in progress, as ever-changing as a sandy shoreline along the beach. During the years Joan Anderson was a loving wife and supportive mother, she had slowly and unconsciously replaced her own dreams with the needs of her family. With her sons grown, however, she realized that the family no longer centered on the home she provided, and her relationship with her husband had become stagnant. Like many women in her situation, Joan realized that she had neglected to nurture herself and, worse, to envision fulfilling goals for her future. As her husband received a wonderful job opportunity out-of-state, it seemed that the best part of her own life was finished. Shocking both of them, she refused to follow him to his new job and decided to retreat to a family cottage on Cape Cod.
At first casting about for direction, Joan soon began to take plea-sure in her surroundings and call on resources she didn't realize she had. Over the course of a year, she gradually discovered that her life as an "unfinished woman" was full of possibilities. Out of that magical, difficult, transformative year came A Year by the Sea, a record of her experiences and a treasury of wisdom for readers.
This year of self-discovery brought about extraordinary changes in the author's life. The steps that Joan took to revitalize herself and rediscover her potential have helped thousands of woman reveal and release untapped resources within themselves.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Weird Washington: Your Travel Guide to Washington's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets (Weird)

Jefferson Davis, Al Eufrasio

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

I Knew We Were Weird! 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

I got hooked on these "Weird" books the moment they started coming out. They were just unbelieveably fascinating, fun, and educational. I had always hoped that my wonderful state, Washington, would get the 'weird' treatment, since the state doesn't always get that much attention. My hopes came true and this book was released. I snatched it up as quickly as I could. What do the pages hold for the weird and wonderful that is in Washington?.

Like all of the other books, it is broken up into chapters, each with it's own identity. You have "Fabled People And Places", "Local Heroes And Villains", "Bizarre Beasts", "Ancient Mysteries", "Unexplained Phenomena", "Personalized Properties", "Roadside Oddities", "Roads Less Taveled", "Haunted Places", "Cemetery Safari", and lastly, "Washington Lost And Found".

I have lived in this state my entire life. I knew of a few things, but not a whole lot. So, imagine my surprise and fascination when I read up on all these interesting things in my state. For instance, you will hear about the exorcisms that took place at the Monaghan Music Hall building at Gonzaga University in Spokane; The mysterious Indian princess at Pike Place Market in Seattle; Soap People of Crescent Lake; Maury Island Ufo incident; Bigfoot; Ghosts of Thornewood Castle; Bobo The Gorilla, and much, much more. Most of these I have never read or heard about in my entire life here. Reading this book was such a learning experience, and it is sure to intrigue fellow Washingtonians who may not know of this history either. Then again, it's great for anyone, locals or not. There are a few things here I am familiar with : Sylvester The Mummy in Seattle; The Troll Bridge, also in Seattle, and a few others. However, there are some things I would of liked here but are not included. How about the giant red Radio Flyer in downtown Spokane?. The supposed haunting of the Fox Theater and Davenport Hotel?. Weird Washington 2, anyone?.

The book is well written and the pictures are great, as they always are in the "Weird" books. Authors Jeff Davis and Al Eufrasio obviously love their state, and they did an incredible job of capturing the weird and wonderful here. It took a lifelong Washington resident like me on an amazing road trip of which I have never been on, and learned a lot of great things along the way. Some I knew, and some I became shockingly aware of. It's a wonderful and worthy addition to the "Weird" canon of books, and I recommend it to everyone, Washingtonian or not.

The Good Life

Scott Nearing, Helen Nearing

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 29 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Dated, redundant, and inconsistent but a fairly good old book. 3 out of 5 stars.
13 of 23 people found this review helpful.

From what I've been able to piece together Helen and Scott must have been a couple of outcast university professors that were scorned for their anti-establishment (socialist?) teachings. I think they must have been what would later become beatniks (and later hippies).

Throughout their book (actually 2 books) they forecast the social disintegration of the US.

They believe people should only work 4 hours a day and play the rest of the day. To me they actually seem lazy.

They say that when they feel a cold coming on they do as the neighborhood dogs and cats do, they quit eating until they feel fit again. To me, that's a very silly way of treating a cold. When animals quit eating it's because they don't feel like eating. They don't say, "I must be sick so I shouldn't eat." Ridiculous.

They preach about not using animals for food or labor. They also refer to milk as a food not for adults but for baby animals and talk about being vegetarians. Then in one chapter they talk about 3 girls down the road that regularly deliver milk to their house (contrary to their teachings). There is also a photo of them using horses to plow a field and another photo of Helen driving a pair of horses (two more examples of them not following their own teachings) on a snow covered road while she's riding in the wagon or sled (can't tell which since the picture is taken from in front of the horses). ??? Were they hypocrites? Did they eat shrimp cocktail and prime rib on Sunday afternoons?

There is a lot of information that is repeated in the book.

This book is way overrated. It's more of a 'do as I say, not as I do' book. I got very annoyed at the often repeated refences to America's 'disintegrating society'. (Here were are fifty years after the first of the 2 books were written.)

I felt that they may have been frustrated by not being able to establish a large following (as prophets?) so they could create a large commune. Instead, people seemed to come and go from their homesteads.

It seems to be more of a treatise against capitalism and self motivation than for homesteading and self sufficiency. They simply wanted to barely get by. Were they lazy? (People that visited were talked out of working more than 4 hours a day.)

I'm reading it for the 3rd time in 25 years and it is enjoyable to read. There are much better books out there for those considering homesteading. If you are considering homesteading then read some books that are more up to date and don't have such political influences.

This is a fairly well written and somewhat entertaining book (actually 2 books in one) but it's worthless as a reference book for homesteaders.

Editorial Review:

This one volume edition of Living the Good Life and Continuing the Good Life brings these classics on rural homesteading together. This couple abandoned the city for a rural life with minimal cash and the knowledge of self reliance and good health.

Towers of Gold: How One Jewish Immigrant Named Isaias Hellman Created California

Frances Dinkelspiel

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Isaias Hellman, a Jewish immigrant, arrived in California in 1859 with very little money in his pocket and his brother Herman by his side.  By the time he died, he had effectively transformed Los Angeles into the modern metropolis we see today.  In Frances Dinkelspiel's groundbreaking history, the early days of California are seen through the life of a man who started out as a simple store owner only to become California's premier money-man of the late 19th and early 20th century. Growing up as a young immigrant, Hellman quickly learned the use to which "capital" could be put, founding LA's Farmers and Merchants Bank, that city's first successful bank, and transforming Wells Fargo into one of the West's biggest financial institutions. He invested money with Henry Huntington to build trolley lines, lent Edward Doheney the funds that led him to discover California's huge oil reserves, and assisted Harrison Gary Otis in acquiring full ownership of the Los Angeles Times.  Hellman led the building of Los Angeles' first synagogue, the Wilshire Boulevard Temple, helped start the University of Southern California and served as Regent of the University of California. His influence, however, was not limited to Los Angeles. He controlled the California wine industry for almost twenty years and, after San Francisco's devastating 1906 earthquake and fire, calmed the financial markets there in order to help that great city rise from the ashes. With all of these accomplishments, Isaias Hellman almost single-handedly brought California into modernity. Ripe with great historical events that filled the early days of California such as the Gold Rush and the San Francisco earthquake, Towers of Gold brings to life the transformation of California from a frontier society whose economy was driven by the barter of hides and exchange of gold dust into a vibrant state with the strongest economy in the nation.

Rebound!: Basketball, Busing, Larry Bird, and the Rebirth of Boston

Michael Connelly

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Editorial Review:

In the mid-1970s, the city of Boston entered a period of upheaval on both its historic cobblestone streets and its legendary parquet basketball court. The Boston Celtics’ long dominance of the NBA came to an abrupt end, and the city's image as a hub of social justice was shaken to its core. When the federal courts declared, in 1974, that the city was in violation of school desegregation rulings and would need to institute a busing program, Boston became deeply polarized.

          Then, just as the city was struggling to pull itself out of economic and social turmoil, the Boston Celtics drafted a forward from Indiana State named Larry Bird. Upon the arrival of the “Hick from French Lick” to Boston in 1979, the fates of team and city were reborn. Pride, championships, reduced crime, and an economic boom re-emerged in Boston.

          In Rebound!, author Michael Connelly chronicles these parallel but intertwining worlds. It is an account of a city in financial, moral, and social decline brought back to life by the re-emergence of the Boston Celtics dynasty and the return of hope, purpose, and pride to “Hub of the Universe.” Interviews with city officials, former players, and others on the frontlines provide a fascinating exploration into this tumultuous time.

The Divine Nine: The History of African American Fraternities and Sororities

Lawrence C. Ross Jr.

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 68 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

A good introduction but... 2 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

As a member of one of the D9 sororities (Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc.) I found this book to be a great intro for those that don't know much about the 9 organizations which make up the NPHC. Each organization's history and achievements are briefly reviewed along with some interviews of famous members and undergrad and grad chapters. I don't however find the answers to many questions that many people (D9 and non-D9) want to know. For a more in depth look into the history, legacy, and future of the D9, as well as the WHY's of Black Greek Letter Organizations, there is a phenomenal book out there titled "African American Fraternities and Sororities: The Legacy and The Vision." This book was written by D9 professors and scholars and is well worth the read. It will answer or attempt to answer many of the questions that most want to know, such as WHY D9 organizations do what they do? and HOW did it all get started? The book African American Fraternities And Sororities: The Legacy And The Vision is a great value to D9 members and non-D9 members alike, and especially for the other ethnic orgs (other BGLOs, Latin, Asian, Multicultural) that have copied the D9 in how they currently do things but do not know WHY we/they do them. It's a part of our history and heritage and you will find many of the answers to your questions in the book. If you want a great overall look into the D9, I recommend buying both books.