this book was exciting and interseting...it lost my attention at some points...going on and on on little things....overall this is a great book...:-)

When I borrowed this book from a friend's younger sister, I thought it would be an easy read to take my mind off things before I did my homework. Well, I read it.. and then I read it again. While the plot could be a little contrived at times, the characters were vivid and real, and the relationships between them left me wishing for a sequel. I bought the book for myself, and it has a permanent place on my bookshelf for those rainy lonely days when I need some cheering up.

This book is set in post-apocalyptic times, after a Nuclear Holocaust called the Flash. It is about six children who are living on a paddle wheel steam boat. To make a living, they play Rock-and-Roll from before the Flash and carry mail. Absolutely No Passengers! The kids rescue a man out of the river who is being pursued by a band of men who think he has something they want. This book may sound to you like the classic "Kids on their own", adventure story, but, it's not. Even though the plot becomes a bit unrealistic at times, it is still enjoyable. The characters come alive, and not only are they believable, sometimes you can even identify with them. It is as if you're on the boat yourself. Also, you're being told the story in the first-person by one of the kids. I enjoyed his descriptions and his thoughts. I highly recommend this book, and if you read it, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. By the way, I've read about four (Sherlock Holmes, Watership Down, The Goats and this.) really great books in my time, and I consider this to be one of them. Yours, Dogspaw

Garland is an expert at capturing local color. This collection of short stories shows the brutal reality of farm and rural life in the Midwest. His characters are thrown around in the cruel world and have no real way of escaping. His women characters are strong and hold their own in world dominated by hard working men. This book shows how it was like to live in the West one hundred years ago.

Garland captures the American West as it was at the end of the 19th Century. This collection of shorts stories is a slice of life in rural America. Garland is a true local colorist who portrays real, hard working farmers and the struggle to survive in the harsh landscape of the Midwest. Who is a true Naturalist who shows the brutal reality of American life and the lack of control people had on the conditions of their lives. These stories take you into the hardships of the countryfolk of one hundred years ago.

Hamlin captures the essence of American Realism. The vividly painted scenes full of grit and labor keep this book moving. The characters are solid and provide the reader with a painfully honest view of life and love at the turn of the century. A necessary book for any decent collection of American Realism. Escape into the main traveled roads of humanity!

Mississippi Blues builds upon the world and characters in Queen City Jazz. Although the plot lags in places, overall the book unfolds with exactly the kind of upbeat pessimism good blues music is famous for. It's not The Bones of Time, but still a very satisfying read.

How many times have you wished you could change other people's minds? Imagine that power being within reach of any determined individual or group -- philosophies and core beliefs and even whole identities spreading (literally) as viruses. Now imagine that this has been going on for hundreds of years. This is a book that dares to think big, and to answer its own questions with unflinching candor. And there's action, too!

The epic proportions and pacing of this book are only gradually revealed to the reader. It begins as an adventure quest; the cast and their mysterious histories accrete and generate a story with much gravity. Several running themes are carried: free will as a gamble, the power of music, the cruelty of slavery and Otherness in general. Heroics tend towards healing and guiding rather than fighting. A loose, disorganized quality to the characters, jerky narrative flow and occasional pedantic tone prevented my fuller enjoyment of the book. It's more focused and substantial, however than her earlier books--all in all, a good read.

This collection of photographs vibrantly brings to life a bygone era in Mississippi. As a former resident of the state Ms. Welty photographed, I found this book to be an indispensible document of a life now gone (for better and worse). The simplicity and beauty of the featured photographs move me almost as much as the author's fiction. While we do not remember Eudora Welty for her photographs, I find it hard to be disappointed with them. I can only find fault with the volume's brevity. This book would be a wonderful addition to any collection.

Most of us know Eudora Welty as a writer of Southern fiction, marked by regional dialect, mysterious characters, and absorbing stories. Ms. Welty's photography is another reflection of her sensitive, intuitive nature. She captures in images the essence of life in Mississippi just as she captured it later in her writings. The reproduction is not superlative, but one does get an adequate representation of her work and its intent. Those who know photography intimately and those with a passing interest will all find this book immensely satisfying.

Walter Anderson was an extremely unique and interesting fellow. After hearing about him, I wanted to see some of his paintings and read more about him. The book has many color plates which will give you more than a feel for his style. The introductory chapter provides a nice biography and is in large measure an essay on his artistic style and philosophy, as viewed by Redding Sugg, jr. The bulk of the book, (pages 38 to 236)are transcribed log entries by the artist himself. I am glad that what was included was included, but after about the 100th page of "today I saw a duck. A boat went by. I drew a Pelican. The wind was blowing.....", it gets a bit boring. Still, I wanted to learn about this guy and I feel that, having read the book, I have done so.

I have been interested in Walter Inglis Anderson since I first saw some of his stunning watercolors and woodcuts. This book allows the reader to see the world through his eyes and to experience with him the wonders of nature. It records the time he spent living, sans shelter other than his overturned rowboat, on Horn Island, an island off the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Anyone who loves Anderson's work (and if you've not seen it, you should) will love this chance to delve into his philosophies and insights as he tries to capture the world around him perfectly through pen, ink, and watercolor.

If you are a Hegwood fan, come on, read this book. It is a bit slower moving than his other novels, but the usual Hegwood cast of characters is here. This time at a Casino music spectacular. And the insurance companies get stung. And there is some pretty good misdirection. And the untangling of the plot will grab you. And ,yes, you can figure it out - almost- but I will not spoil the fun. Guess what I like about Hegwood is that there are clues to the solution ,and so far he seems to play fair in letting his readers speculate about the conclusion.

Casino employee Johnnie Koscko leaves Vegas with enough of a stake to return home to Biloxi, Mississippi to buy the Jackpot Bay Casino. Johnnie envisions the area becoming part of the European high roller jet set. In fact his first plane load of the Monte Carlo crowd is coming to Biloxi in a few days to gamble at Johnnie's casino and to listen to the rock sound of the very popular Snow Mountain.

However, as usual for Johnny just when he seems paused for success he rolls craps. The casino insurance carrier is concerned over missing revenue. They send private investigator Jack Delmas to force Johnny to hire security auditor Tara Stocklin. Even with Jack and Tara involved, Johnny seems to be holding the "Deadman's Hand" as murder and robbery follow.

Readers who try a Jack Delmas novel will believe they hit the jackpot, as he is a strong character who consistently provides the audience with a quiet intelligent outlook as he tries to do the right thing though not always successful. However, the rest of the key cast members such as Johnny and Tara, etc. come across as worthless sharks with nothing much to redeem them so that they appear more a caricatures than people. Still the exciting story line of JACKPOT BAY is an engaging look behind the scene at the Gulf Coast gambling spots. For those who don't know Jack, he is worth the time to read about even in this novel, but especially in his previous appearances like MASSACRE ISLAND.

Harriet Klausner

Leroy saw a gang mugging an old woman. The police came to Leroy's house. Leroy said he did not know anything. The gang threatens to cut him and they trashed his mom's house. Leroy ran away to his grandpa's house. There he learned to become a shrimper. Then the Chicago police came to have Leroy testify. In the end, Leroy's dad came to offer him a way out. Leroy's dad ran numbers for a living. He said that Leroy could come to New York and run numbers for him. Will Leroy take the way that his dad told him or will he go to Chicago to testify?
This book was O. K. It should have been longer. It seems the author did not finish the book before the story was finished.

I rate this book a four star book, I liked the book because Leroy witnessed a crime and he got to do something good for the community, so the gang couldn't do anything else to the city. If I could do something like that I would be scared but I probaly would still do something good for my community. I also liked that Leroy got to drive a truck.

This is a mystery set during Reconstruction. It's certainly not a "deep" or literary work, but it's a fun, quick read. Brewer seems to be at his best with the character of Masey Baldridge, the sometimes-embittered Confederate veteran -- Masey is pretty much the only character in this book with genuine depth. The plot is exciting and original enough to be entertaining -- Brewer's execution is a little shallow but I think it will please most readers.

From word one to the very last, Mr Brewer has a way of making life on the Missippi come to life. This historical fiction breathes life into it's characters. The characters in this series interact with both ease and detail. The suspense of the novel keeps you reading until the end. Mr Brewer has made this times period in our history come to life with joy and delight. You can almost hear the sounds of the water of the Missippi River or the creaking of the doors on the river boat. Wonderfully written, easy to read and characters that zing, all components of a great read.

I really wanted to like this book. It has a lot going for it: two troubled main characters, an intriguing setting (an island on the Mississippi River), some sex, a crotchety old man, and some of the best descriptions of a place you'll ever read. Ford is definitely a writer of power. I felt the importance of the setting in his detailed attention to every tree and rut in the road, yet I couldn't find a strong motivation for the two characters to be there. Robard Hewes is a lost soul, similar to other Ford characters (a lot like Quinn in *The Ultimate Good Luck*, but less self-confident) who goes south for all the wrong reasons. Robard I can sort of understand, but Sam Newel, the law student from Chicago searching for meaning in his life so he doesn't become like his father, just doesn't fit, and once he arrives on the island, he doesn't really DO much, except go on a fateful fishing excursion with the crusty old Mr. Lamb. I enjoyed reading it, but I'd probably not read it again. A little more focus would've greatly improved this first book by a wonderful writer. It should be read by all first time novelists to see how well setting and characterization can be done (and also to see how much a writer learns in comparison to his later work).

Richard Ford's first book, A Piece Of My Heart, scored big with reviewers across the country, but has largely been ignored by the reading public.

All the more a pity, since this book deserves a large readership, perhaps even as much or more so than The Sportswriter or Independence Day. If there is a fault with this book, it is that it flows too easily. It is the kind of work that can be devoured in a few hours. It reads so smoothly that it's rich detail can be easily overlooked.

The cinematic quality of this work cannot be understated. The sometimes stark, sometimes lush and haunting landscapes of this novel are so rich in description that they are seen effortlessly and because they flow so easily, the unwary reader is tempted to speed ahead like a traveler on the interstate, driving at breakneck speed through breathtakingly beautiful scenery.

Ford's characters are quirky and so three dimensional that they rise up before the reader with startlingly familiarity. I suspect that Ford loses many of his more urbane readers with the grittiness of these characters--their down home rustication and the sense of danger inherent in their ferocious living of lives from moment to moment.

For those who plunge into this work with abandon (as I did on my first reading), one warning: slow down. Savor the power of each scene. Don't go crashing through from page to page like a tourist in New York with one day to see the Metropolitan Museum. Enjoy each wonderfully crafted scene and avoid the temptation to read through at breakneck speed.

The amazing juxtaposition of whimsy, darkness and doom are quite extraordinary in this work. The plot, ostensibly, revolves around the actions of Robard Hewes, an uneducated but shrewdly obsessed and compulsive character who drives from his dusty desert home in California to his past in Mississippi in pursuit of Buena, a wanton married woman whose siren call is enough to overwhelm Robard with an inexplicable burning desire.

Sam Newell is Hewes opposite. Newell, a severely depressed man down from Chicago on the suggestion of his lover for some ill-advised convalescence as a guest at her grandfather's island hunting camp, is filled with self loathing and unintentionally invites the scorn of almost everyone he encounters. Newell, on the verge of commencing practice as a lawyer has broken down and drifts rudderless throughout the action of this work. Nevertheless, he is an important character and his short musings on his childhood are remarkably evocative and superb and this along with the stark nature of his intellect give insight into the workings of Ford's mind and the detached alienated characters that evolve in his later works.

Mark Lamb (the grandfather), his wife, and TVA (his cook and handyman), constitute an extraordinarily quirky and wonderfully drawn backdrop for a good part of the action in this novel. Lamb is one of the most endearingly cranky old men you will run across in any short novel. The odd domestic scenes that take place on the island are redolent with humor and are brilliantly drawn.

I cannot recomment A Piece Of My Heart too highly. It is a must read for those who appreciate good literature.

I read this book some time ago, and while I have no strong emotional impressions of it, the book wasn't that bad. In fact the plot itself was masterfully developed - a true characteristic of Newbery Honor books. But I felt the story was a little difficult to follow and I never attained much interest in Chris, the main character. I'd tell my own nine-year-old to wait a few years before reading this one - it requires a certain amount of patience to get through.

You'll have to read it!