William Faulkner is a fantastic, interesting writer. This collection of short stories is as engaging and well-written as his longer novels, with stories and characters as real as memories.

Faulkner is a brilliant storyteller. Begin with "A Bear Hunt" and "A Rose for Emily." You will be captivated by this wonderful collection.

Reading these stories by Faulkner is like listening to your granddad tell about a town and county you want so badly to be real and are heartbroken that its not. These stories are some of the best ive ever read. Their beauty lies in their sense of believability and simplicity of the characters in them. Just like everday people

William Faulkner's work has influenced many writers. His extravagant language and quirky stories are the epitome of fiction. Having read this amazing collection of short stories, I have no doubt in my mind that Faulkner was a very interesting person -- I would've loved to meet him.

My favorite story is "A Rose for Emily"; the quirkiness and symbolism in the story is both beautiful and strange. I also like "A Bear Hunt," "All the Dead Pilots," "Wash," and "Two Soldiers" -- all of the stories have a very unique language. If you like good literature, I strongly suggest that you read this amazing book.

The amount of detail in this account of the 11th Mississippi Civil War Regiment is astounding. As a descendant and a civil war buff I was spellbound and as a genealogist I found it full of new and useful information. Overall I thought Steven Stubbs' book was a monumental achievement.

Jim Harrison
Huntsville, Alabama

This is without a doubt the best account of the day to day activities encountered by our ancestors who served in the Eleventh Mississippi Infantry Regiment. From chapter to chapter, as I read, I feel I am with them. As a genealogist I have found more information about several of my ancestors, most who were members of the "University Greys" Co. A" in this book than I have found after several years research in Libraries and Archives. I commend Col. Stubbs for compiling the greatest account of any Civil War unit I have ever read. I highly reccomend this book not only to Civil War buffs but also to Genealogists. There is priceless information in this great book.

Steven H. Stubbs labor of love which documents not only the 11th Mississippi Infantry Regiment, but also the individuals who comprised it, is everything a regimental history should be. Unjustly overlooked by historians due in large part to the fact the regiment served as a part of two different brigades (the first a very unusal mixed-state command), the 11th Mississippi's combat record in Lee's Army of Northern Virginia is second to none. By the time it was assigned to Brigadier Joseph R. Davis's brigade in early 1863, combat reputations at the brigade level had unfortunately already been established and "carved in stone." As a part of Bee's/Whiting's/Law's hard-hitting "mixed" brigade, the 11th Mississippi, 2nd Mississippi, 4th Alabama and 6th North Carolina comprised one of Lee's premier combat units and played a major role at 1st Manassas, Gaines Mill, 2nd Manassas, South Mountain and Antietam. However, the brigade was broken up in late 1862 and the units reassigned to more traditional "state" commands. The two Mississippi units went on to form the core of Davis's new brigade which came to grief during the Gettysburg Campaign. Although the 11th Mississippi missed the debacle at the Railroad Cut on July 1, it was present for "Pickett's Charge" forming the highly exposed left flank of the Confederate line once Brockenbrough's small Virginia brigade broke to the rear. The remnants of the 11th Mississippi, along with the other units of Davis's Brigade, also suffered in rear-guard actions at Williamsport and Falling Waters. Thus, the outstanding performance subsequently demonstrated by Davis's brigade following the Gettysburg debacle, during the Overland Campaign and the fighting south of Petersburg in the closing months of the war, was largely relegated to brief passages or footnotes in the works of most Civil War historians. Steven Stubbs history of the 11th Mississippi helps correct this serious error of omission. Highly recommended.

From the Mississippi Delta is the memoir of Endesha Ida Mae Holland, Ph.D. - a well respected author, playwright, and scholar with a personal story that both enlightens and inspires. As a civil rights pioneer, Dr. Holland was instrumental in the success of organized efforts to eradicate racial discrimination from her home state of Mississippi.

From the Mississippi Delta is even more compelling because of the circumstances from which this remarkable woman came...to think that a one-time prostitute, thief, and convict could rise to become a Pulitzer Prize nominee, critcally acclaimed author, and tenured professor at the University of Southern California! The fact that Dr. Holland has survived and persevered despite having every possible obstacle placed in front of her - it should make those of us who were born to better circumstances rethink our roles in life.

I was extremely humbled by this autobiography. The sacrifices that Dr. Holland and her peers made as part of the Civil Rights Movement should never be forgotten or dismissed. After being repeatedly exposed to the murderous deeds of those who have sought to paint themselves as the brave patriots and heros of a new world order, I am grateful that there are books like From the Mississippi Delta that provide examples of those who can rightly take on the mantles of bravery, heroism, and patriotism - and bear them with the pride, dignity, and respect that they deserve.

The occasionally encountered graphic material didn't bother me, since the scenes and language in From the Mississippi Delta are non-gratuitous, accurate, and true to life; it would be a travesty to dilute them. I am horrified at the prospect of people being subjected to the conditions and abuse that are described as being part and parcel of young Ida Mae Holland's everyday existence.

In my opinion, any distasteful moments are fully recounted in the text to make sure that we don't forget our past mistakes - lest we give in to the ever-present danger of committing the same errors in the future.

A gripping and well-written account. An absolutely incredible read. Highly recommended.

Aside from being a celebration of the human spirit, Ms. Holland's Memoir offers a fresh, interesting, and unique glimpse into the early days of the Civil Rights Movement. This focus alone, I believe, renders the book meritorious.

Ms. Holland tells the civil rights story from the perspective of individuals born and raised in the muck and mire of Mississippi's lethal brand of white supremacy and racial hatred. Through her eyes, we get a close-up view of what had to be overcome; and, what was required of ordinary folk brave enough to get involved in a situation that could and DID, literally, cost them their lives and the lives of their loved ones.

These unsung heroes deserve national attention and recognition if the story of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States of America is to be told in its entirety.

But, if this isn't reason enough to add Ms. Holland's book to your "must read" list, I believe the author's superior craftsmanship will certainly convince you her work is worthy of the acclaim she is sure to receive once her book gains a wider readership. And, above all, the Memoir is a magnificent read!

Usually, I find it awkward and sometimes unnerving to read books written in a black, southern, vernacular. However, as in the case of Zora Neale Hurston, Endesha Ida Mae Holland writes with such a pure and authentic voice, I found myself falling effortlessly into her rhythm.

I'm a voracious reader and the authors I most enjoy are great storytellers. My current favorite is Barbara Kingsolver, and of course my all time favorite is Zora Neale Hurston. Endesha Ida Mae Holland "puts me in the mind of" both these writers.

She also reminds me of Frank McCourt (Angela's Ashes & 'Tis). Like McCourt, Ms. Holland transports you back to her childhood and growing up years with such seamless ease, you find yourself sharing her heartbeat through every single experience she lives to tell about. Almost immediately, I found myself caring deeply about her; I grew to love her mother, her child, her neighbors, her friends; and, I found no strangers among those who populate her world.

What an exquisite gift of storytelling she has! I certainly hope she plans to write more "from the Mississippi Delta," because her talent is as rich and fertile as her source.

Obviously, I've become a devoted fan of Ms. Holland and her work ~ a designation I'm hoping you and I will soon share.

Who knows, your reading experience with Ms. Holland may inspire you to join me in asking Oprah Winfrey to feature the author and her book on the Oprah Show, as well as making "From The Mississippi Delta," an Oprah Book Club selection.

I was moved to make this appeal to Ms. Winfrey because I believe we all benefit from an increased national and world exposure of brave and talented women like Ms.Holland. These women are profoundly inspirational and deserving of our applause and recognition.

This is an excellent book that captured my attention from start to finish each of the three times I read it. I cannot think of any people in America that would not benefit from reading this very touching and true story of the deep south. The history of the south after slavery is eloquently highlighted in this very moving story by Endesha and should be fireside reading for children of all ethnic backgrounds.

I greatly admire Endesha's strength to overcome the tragedies she experienced, her ability to forgive those responsible and her wisdom to share this achievement with the world. I congratulate Dr. Endesha Ida Mae Holland on her accomplishments as a strategic survivor, a courageous civil rights activist, a concerned citizen, a stellar scholar and an accomplished author. There have been many books written about the south after slavery, and I have read several of them. From The Mississippi Delta by Endesha Ida Mae Holland, Phd. is the one you must read.

This book is important, and maybe even vital, in spite of itself. Lomax is the real thing: He knows his material incredibly well, and even his most offhand paragraphs on anything at all related to African influences on American/southern culture are right on the mark. His field recordings were/are an incalculable contribution to American music. Some of them brought major artists -- Muddy Waters being the most obvious example -- from total obscurity squarely into the mainstream. He was a true scholar, and a kind of cultural hero. That said, this memoir/history was not exactly a joy to read. Lomax has a terrible weakness for lyrical language, but he just doesn't have the chops as a writer; his story is so good he should have been as plain in the telling as possible. His overheated romance with the black American male is often embarrassing. Maybe the best part of the book is a long passage when he simply gets out of the way and we hear directly from one of his subjects for many pages. It's not that Lomax had no right to do a book like this -- he had every right to. And even at its most purple, what he has to say is crucial if you want to understand American music. I just wish he could have spared us some of his attempts at heightened language and overwrought description. Complaining about white rock musicians, he writes, "To my jaundiced Southern ears .. many rock guitarists are more concerned with showing how many notes they can get off and how many chords they know tan what the song has to say or how the guitar can speak for them." I would say something very similar about the way Lomax wrote this book -- he should have been less concerned about how many phrases he could get off and how many words he knew, and just let his wonderful story tell itself plainly.

Alan Lomax has done more than any living man to unearth the powerful African music heritage that lives in many different genres of American music. This book is only part of the wealth that he has dug up and offered to us, so that we may better know ourselves. Check out the 4CD set of his recordings "Sounds of the South" for a soundtrack to this book. But no book, no acetate, no film, can adequately depict the pain and suffering that Africans were subjected to in the US. Lomax's work, though, brings us closer, by bringing us the voices of the prisoners, the fieldworkers, the muleskinners, and the roustabouts who lived in a world we can scarce imagine today. Life was cheap then. People were brutal to one another. By Lomax's account, sex and violence seem to be more unrestrained in the first half of the 19th century than in the second. Today, Arnold kills people with laser guns to make a couple bucks for Hollywood. Then, Boss White would kill a man with a shotgun to the skull, just for complaining. After having read the book, I caught myself being hopeful for humanity. Maybe we are getting better

So powerful is the writing of Alan Lomax that one cannot help but be moved by the trials of the African American, which gave birth to the Blues. I read through this account with equal parts shame, empathy and admiration for the people who found hope through their music. I've been a listener and aspiring musician of the Blues for many years. With reading Mr. Lomax's account I feel my education has been grounded in the truth of what makes the Blues so uplifting and expressive. When all hope and opportunity were removed from the negroes of the Jim Crow South, they turned to their instruments, and driven by subconscious inspiration of their ancestoral past, were able to find something to sing and dance about. Through this singing and body-embracing rhythm-making the Blues becomes a means of making peace within their lives, within our lives. This much I've learned from reading the narration of Mr. Lomax. His work will always be with me.

Larry Brown's best novel in my opinion. If you have never read Brown you should give him a try. It is serious fiction. One clarification of another review: neither Joe nor any of Brown's other novels are set in the Delta. They are set in North Central Mississippi east of the delta.

so, here i am again, drunk, trying to tell you why i think "joe" is a wonderful novel and worthy of your attention. i'm not going to mention the beautiful pain of the writing, or the story, which will melt you at twenty paces, or the fact that you are abundantly aware, from the first word, that Brown cares so much about his characters that I feel like he'd die before he'd sell them out. no. you won't get that review here. what you'll get, instead, is an honest plea to read a miraculous novel of blood and redemption, told by a modern Southern master- i'll go with the "accessible Faulkner" tag- that shows you how life is. lacking pretension, lacking garnish; Larry Brown lays the line out like it should be laid out- wholesome, without hamhanded proselytizing. which is magic. his gifts, nurtured in an Oxford, MI fire station, shoot honesty and magic through you like embers from a fire that you didn't set yet have to deal with- i.e., life.

joe is a mess, and his arrangement is a mess, and yet brown pulls it off. with time to spare.

magic. sheer magic.

If you are not familiar with Brown's novels, then I offer you my condolences. You are deprived. Joe is, in my opinion, the best of Brown's disturbing and wonderful novels. There are no heroes in his books. There is also little in the way of hope and compassion. Brown tells a wicked story, rich with realism and imagery, like no one in the last half of the 20th century. As a writer, after reading Joe, I realized I had finally found a book that I could never realistically hope to rival. Joe, the book not the man, is flawless. I've heard Brown compared to Faulkner, but Brown has a readability that I never found with Faulkner. Do yourself a favor, get this book & get his debut novel, Dirty Work. There is every chance in the world that you will then become a Larry Brown fan for life. This novel is desolate and grim, but something about his writing endears you to it anyway. With most of the great writers long dead, it's refreshing to know that at least one master of the craft is not only still with us, but in the prime of his life. Joe will leave you aching and disillusioned. It will also leave you bleeding for more, more, more. Larry Brown develops his characters and plots better than anyone going.

Sharpshooter Blues is a dark and twisted story about life and trying to find a place to fit in, and what can happen if one never happens to find that place. At times it is funny, but mostly somewhat sad. Lewis Nordan has quite a talent for getting the reader to connect with the characters. I would have liked to see a little more character development....I felt like I wanted to know the people a little better, but I still really enjoyed the book. I think this would actually make a pretty good movie.

This was my first Nordan book. I found his quirky story both funny and heart-wrenching. The writing is everything the previous reviewers say it is--very very good. I look forward to readindg more Nordan soon.

Imagine being in a world filled with humidity, drooping moss, parrots flying, sounds of Robert Johnson singing to the wind and motoring the swampy delta in a boat powered by an evinrude motor. This is the world of Hydro Raney a young man stunted mentally by hydro-encephalitis. Lewis Nordan draws us into this strange and magical world in his book Sharp-Shooter Blues. Every character is deftly created and a pleasure to meet.

Hydro Raney is a gentle and innocent young man who readers will easily takes into their heart. He is a person of simple wants and needs who takes people he meets at face value. His father loves him dearly and sings him to sleep at night. Hydro willingly places a cantaloupe on his head for his sharpshooter friend Morgan to shoot off. While this turns out successfully, Hydro in his innocence is not prepared to deal with everyone who comes his way.

Prepare to meet as well: the Lovely children who are beautiful to look at, but hide behind their looks and beauty; Louis, the young comic book geek who is witness to the darkest moments of the book; the Prince of Darkness the mortician that rose from the dead. The Sharp Shooter Blues is awash with wonderful southern characters that, leave a lasting impression on the reader.

Lewis Nordan is a gifted story teller who has crafted a book of extreme pain and beauty. There is so much life, sadness and depth to the book that I dog eared numerous pages to go back and read again. It is beautifully written and leave the reader with much to think about.

If you have not yet discovered Lewis Nordan do pick up a copy of the Sharp Shooter Blues. It is a story that reads swiftly but that will stay with you long after.

The Truth of Racism Speaks Out Billy, by Albert French Racism is seen everyday and is avoided. Not many people take action in racism. If most people heard a racism comment, they would ignore it like nothing happen. Albert French goes straight to the point and tackles the problem in the great novel Billy. French joins the elite writers and stabs racism in the back with Billy. French draws up a masterpiece in Billy with his plot, characters and setting. This book shows the reality of racism, and it is a book that everyone should read and learn about the tragedies of the past. No one will walk away after reading this book and not be disturbed. That's how powerful this novel is. "May be the best novel by a black author since Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye." For the price of $9.95, it is a true steal. Billy takes place in Banes County, Mississippi, in 1937. Billy, who is 10, and Gumpy, who is 12, are the main characters and live in the shacks of a small town. Racism is a common occurrence in this town. The blacks live in small shacks and are separated from the whites. One day, Billy and Gumpy pass the forsaken line, that splits the blacks from the whites. No black person is suppose to pass this line. Billy and Gumpy are looking for turtles in the nearby pond. Two angry white girls come and beat and chase the boys off. Billy takes out a knife and stabs one of the girls, and the girl shortly dies later from the stab wound. The whole town hears about this and "all hell brakes lose". The newspaper hits the town, with articles saying, "Two Niger boys killed a young innocent white girl". Billy and Gumpy get caught by the local Sheriff and are placed in jail for later trial. This outrageous event affects the entire community. The white townspeople burn Gumpy's house. The white people just increased their racism ways. It's amazing how this event changes the whole town. Billy is found guilty of first- degree murder and is sentenced to death by the electric chair, but Gumpy is place in an all boys camp until he is an adult. It's amazing how much trouble, two boys get for just using self-defense. It is real disturbing. French picks the perfect setting for this story. It's hard to find a place with more racism than deep in the South, in a state like Mississippi. French chooses a small town located in the central Mississippi. The United States has a lot of racism in 1937 and has not yet healed this problem. It is a perfect setting for a great disturbing racism novel. The characters are just well written. Billy, a ten year old, is a young innocent black child living in a white's world, who looks and acts too innocent to do anything wrong. Billy never realizes what he has done or what he is going to get until the very end. Billy keeps on thinking that he is going home during the whole time he is held in jail, "Mama when do we gits to go home. I wanna to go home, Mama". Gumpy, is a perfect angel that never does anything wrong. He is always paranoid that he will get in trouble, "Come on Billy lets go home, I don't want to git in any trouble." Gumpy mixes in with Billy, which is the wrong crowd for him. Gumpy never takes any blame for any of his actions, because he never admits he did anything wrong and blames the whole thing on Billy. "Billy, I never did the killen, you did the whole thing, I'm a good boy". The plot is just well written and keeps you in the edge of your chair for the entire story. It is a definite "page turner". "Billy's strength is not strictly as a novel; it lives as theater. It is a folk opera that moves with unfaltering pace to its shattering climax". The writing style fits the story perfectly like a true masterpiece. Albert French uses the South accents in dialog during his novel. Even though during the middle of the story it tends to drag on a little bit, French's novel truly over comes this problem with great writing style. In conclusion, French wrote a masterpiece. "Although you only know Billy Lee Turner for an all too brief 214 pages, you will mourn his death for the rest of your life. That's how powerfully and dramatically written this book is". This book is a definite buy and is a crime if you do not. It teaches the truth and sadness of racism of the early 1900's. "A work of art, Billy never lets up, not for a minute. The images rush straight to your brain". Billy is relentless, powerful, and should not be missed. This author deserves congratulations for this masterpiece.

Billy is a must read! It tells a heart tugging story about a young boy on death row. This book is well written and will leave you thinking about Billy long after the last page is turned. I highly recommend this book. This would be a great choice as a book club selection.

I felt every breath of emotion that Albert French's characters experienced. Mr. French has crafted an incredibly powerful story with a precision of language and structure. Every scene builds on the one before it. Characters and their situations evolve into a heart wrenching crescendo of emotional devastation. The screams of Billy's mother still resonate -- echo in my mind and spirit... three years after initially reading this story. Also, Mr. French brings the ignorance and prejudice of the time period alive. He masterfully bludgeons us with the brutality of it through desciption and dialogue. The reader must grapple with his/her own perspective of racism and its history. There is no easy way out. I highly recommend reading this book aloud. Many of my high school students from years past, still talk about this one book, read aloud to them in class. Like Toni Morrison's Beloved, Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, and Ernest Gaines The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, Albert French's Billy becomes a part of the way you view the world.

Handsome, priveleged, eighteen year old Fletcher Greel finally returns to his small Southern hometown to mourn the death of his mother. Fletcher hooks back up with his childhood friend Riley White. Riley is a good looking good-ole-boy in the making: stealing beer, spending his time drinkin' and fishin'. But Riley in is love with Crystal Nash, beautiful, sixteen year old Crystal, who is black and sings the blues like she's making love to the music. Through Riley and Crystal, Fletcher falls in love with motherless, wild, beautiful Haley Ellyson, who is obsessed by a unconsummated lust-filled affair with her father's best friend.

Why is it that Southern novels have to be filled with angst-ridden forbidden love, often between blacks and whites? This novel has it to overflowing. That being said, however, this novel has a lot of wonderful points. The aspect with the most promise (although unfulfilled) is Riley's character. It is interesting to watch him try to fit into both his white redneck world and the black music-filled world. The lush writing conjures up the image of a small town in the deep South, with aspects that still seem like it is the 40's there, not the 80's of the novel. Even the heat is depicted with clarity, down to every sheen of sweat. The story flows easily and pulls you into it's inevitable conclusion.

This was a book that was enjoyable to read but once finished, left me irritated by its cliches.

Kingsbury's writing has a ring of truth
to wake a town, the countryside and
her characters manage to carry the burden
as they come of age one summer.

While it might be accused of cliche and though, to coin a phrase, Kingsbury is no Harper Lee (as claimed on the cover), the thing that makes this book sizzle is its amazing description. You can actually feel the heat through the words. Kingsbury's description and language to describe each scene are outstanding. One such description is the bar where we first encounter crystal.
An outstanding debut.

Please, please do not pass over the other fine stories in GO DOWN, MOSES and go straight to "The Bear." This gem means much more when illuminated by the other parts of the text, and only by reading the entire book can you fully understand the meaning of Ike's repudiation of the McCaslin land. I recently completed a Faulkner course, and of all of his "genius" novels--"As I Lay Dying," "Light in August," "Go Down, Moses," "The Sound and the Fury," and "Absalom! Absalom!"--I believe that this one has the strongest emotional core. Read the whole thing; your experience will be much richer.

I read Go Down Moses in 1996 before taking a trip to Mississippi. I had never read Faulkner before and had only one criterion for picking a book of his: it had to take place in the mythical Yoknapatawpha County. I picked this one off the library shelf.

For any non-southern American whose sole exposure to what happened there was from history books, this should forever shatter the pat preconceptions and simplistic black and white (no pun intended!) formulas they were taught.

The book plunges you into a vast panorama of ambiguities and contradictions. It was clear to me from the first paragraph that Faulkner was a genius. In the whole history of literature, he surely stands among a select few at the very pinnacle of greatness.

Go Down Moses is a tremendous struggle to get through. Some parts are straightforward and easy, but there are others that you can't hope to make literal sense of. You're bombarded by its twisted grammar. Its frantic confusion. Its endlessly unresolved sentences. But through these, Faulkner ultimately conveys the pain of history -- past and present. The emotion of that pain seems more real to him than the specific incidents it sprang from. Why else would a book begun in pre-Civil War Mississippi -- entirely skip it -- picking up again a generation later?

This book is about the South. Having read it, Faulkner walked beside me every step of the way I took through his state. But this book also has a sub-theme that should not be overlooked. Faulkner was a profound environmentalist, although sharply contrasted with how we usually think of that term. Hunters don't much fit the mold of environmentalism -- and Faulkner was an avid one of that lot. So, in that sense, along with all the sociological, he can shake you up pretty good! Go Down Moses contains some of the most wrenching descriptions you could hope to find on the loss of wilderness. There is nothing ambiguous in his portrayal of that loss. Faulkner may confound everything you thought you believed of Southern sociology, but in an environmental sense, he leaves no room for confusion. Leave those trees standing!

This book will grip you; I can't imagine it having a lesser effect. Like all truly great art, it should change you forever.

It becomes quite clear after reading Go Down Moses why many critics call this William Falkner's most mature book dealing with race. In Go Down Moses, the black characters are not only as well represented as may be possible from a white author, they are believable and easy to relate to. The main character "Uncle Ike", the grandson of an influential plantation owner, comes to represent everyone who struggles with identity in the miserable face of racism. The style of the book itself was confusing for readers and critics when first published, as it makes use of a series of chapters, each with its own title and numbered sections. Faulkner resisted having the book called a collection of short stories and most modern readers should have little problem with its nonsequential chapters and its sometimes, seemingly, unrelated characters. If you have read some Faulkner, especially A Light in August or Absalom, Absalom or if you enjoy authors such as Toni Morrison and Richard Wright you must read this book to get an idea of just how far Faulkner came toward wrestling with race in his time.