AROUND 1980 I SAW A MINI-SERIES "THE AWAKENING LAND"
WITH HAL HOLBROOK AND ELIZABETH MONTGOMERY WONDER WHY THIS IS NOT AVALIBLE TO PURCHASE ??I THEN PURCHASED THE 3 BOOK SERIES AND FOUND THE STORY TO BE EXCELLENT READING.IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN OUR AMERICAN LAND AND HOW THE MIDWEST FRONTIER PEOPLE HAD TO LIVE AMONG THE WILDS AND TURN THEIR LIVES AROUND
TO MAKE HOMES AND FAMILIES, YOU WILL LOVES THESE BOOKS

THIS IS AN EXCELLENT SERIES

All 3 of these books are beautifully written. I enjoyed the authors style-very colorful, wonderful characters, descriptive. I had seen the movie when I was 14 years old on t.v., and am now 38 and just about finished with the last book of this triology--very hard to put down. I truly would like to own a copy of this movie, but unfortunately it is not available.I know I will re-read these books soon.
Highly recommended.

I saw this as a movie about 3 years ago. Beats me why it isn't played more often and the book is out of print. It was truly something for everyone. The history was spellbinding and the plot holds you better than Saving Private Ryan. The story address all aspects of what life must have been like to be the first to break ground in the frontier. It's all here, how they choose their homestead, hunting and hunger, domestics accidents and trials, the blooming politics, lonliness, fear,death, finding love and starting the next generation. I wish I could find the video. If you can get your hands on this one there are many of us that will be green with envy.

Not only does Doris Larson's new book give all the important details about the destinations she writes about. It offers descriptions so personal and vivid that one feels they had already visited these places in another life. Nuances abound, describing ambience, innkeeper personalities, surrounding culture and little known gems to be discovered in each location. Points of historical interest are described as much more than a footnote. Architectural highlights abound. All in all, this book surpasses its status as a guide book and qualifies as a good read.

The eye-catching cover is just one of the many delightful features in this easy-to-read guide. Ms. Larson has filled its pages with informative research, maps, and events near and around the inns. That the author herself meticulously researched the inns and surrounding areas is enough to reassure even the most cautious traveler that they won't be disappointed. The locations she's selected are not limited to Ohio, but include lovely locales in Canada, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, New York, Pennsylvania and Kentucky - the perfect getaway guide for travelers and romantic stays.

Ms. Larson has written a complete and wise guide to the area. I have visited a couple of the Inns she discusses and found her observations to be very close to my experiences. Her local commentaries are wonderful and reflect a very thorough knowleged of her topic. She writes with warm perspective and lovely appreciation for the Inns, their histories and their owners. I am looking forward to trying a few of her choices. For anyone in the region or thinking about visiting I would consider this book as one of the best resources available.

I was just browsing the book section on the internet when I found this book. I was completely shocked when I saw the picture on the cover of the book. That same picture hangs in my home. It is my great grandfather Charles Poeschel. His daughter Margaret Zwierlein is my grandmother. I purchased the book and totally enjoyed reading the history of breweries in Cleveland.

I would like to find out where my great grandfather was employed when that photo was taken. Does anyone know how to find out which brewery it was?

This wonderful book has helped me imagine how my ansestors must have lived in Cleveland during the 19th century and early 20th.

I purchased this book for my father and it's proven to be one of his all-time favorite gifts. The wealth of photographs and the attention to detail has made this the preeminant book on brewery history. A must-have for brew buffs.

I devoured this book in one night! I still like to browse through it and look at all of the historical pictures. A MUST READ for anyone interested in the history of brewing in Cleveland, Ohio or brewing in general. Everyone needs this masterpiece for their coffee table.

This book is a wonderful compilation of letters that will touch your heart. It gives you great insight into the way these men and women felt, what they went through, and what they gave to us all. I have always respected them, but I do more than ever after this glimpse into their reality.

This collection of letters from Ohio veterans is wonderfully chosen, well-presented, and sure to touch the heart of anybody whose life has been touched by military service.

Having read the book compiled by Dan Meeks it gave me the perfect insight into what goes through our troops minds and the feelings they must have for their loved ones.

I passed the book on to my father who was part of the D Day Landings who was also very moved by many of the stories and said it brought back amazing memories of his time in the trenches.

Well done Dan

I believe this book is awesome! It shows the history of Ohio wrestling in great detail! Anyone that wrestles in Ohio or any other state for that matter should buy this great book! It shows who won or placed for years dating back to years ago if you wrestled during this time youmay be in the greatest ohio wrestling book ever!

Its just plain awesome...The pictures, the great info.And best of all you put my son Brian on the front cover..Thx for a great wrestling book...

This is an awesome book about wrestling..The pictures are great and the best part about it is my son Brian is on the front cover...Thanks mark,what a good piece of work

I have read this book several times over the years, and it holds my interest all the way to the end each time. It reads easily and quickly, and yet gives great detail to the horrific events of Friday, May 31st, 1985. This book is even more important to me because I live about 43 miles away from where the nearest tornado hit- Newton Falls, Ohio. If you are a severe storm and/or tornado buff, or just want to learn more about this particular tornado outbreak, this book is for you.

This is truely the best tornado book I ever read. I lived not far from several of where these tornadoes struck. An F4 tornado just passed south of my hometown, Warren PA, and struck Tionesta and Northern Forest County, killing 7. I found out about this rare, yet fascinating outbreak in PA. I recommend this book to be read by any tornado enthusiast.

This is the best tornado book that I have ever read. This incident happened about 50 miles from my hometown which makes it more exiting yet.The author's chronological story from the start to end keeps the reader's interest through out the whole book. I am currently looking fo a copy of this book

This book is amazing! It really does have it all. Murder, mystery, and damn funny as well! The story is very original and keeps you guessing throughout the entire book. It also has an amazing cast of characters. One of which is probably the craziest, and funniest character in any book i have ever read. This book is completely great, and everyone should read it!

Let's face it: If you're from Cleveland, you don't get no respect. No respect at all. And it mostly stems from the Cuyahoga (pronounced "Cuya-HOG-uh" you out-of-towner) River catching fire. (Well, *that* and our...sports teams.) It's the ultimate absurdity--a body of water catching fire--and therefore a good jumping off point for a stridently absurdist novel.

Gandal's novel delivers. It's the great absurdist Cleveland novel that I've been waiting to read for more years than I can count.

The best moment in the novel, for me anyway, takes place in New York. One of the Cleveland Anonymous members has been discovered with a one-way ticket back to Cleveland in his possession. The Clockwork Orange-esque method used to keep him from going back is an absolute scream.

...

Keith Gandal is a teacher,and a friend, but most importantly, a fresh, new, and exciting contemporary voice that has emerged from the events of the tail-end of the 20th century. The natural disasters, the unfinished, seemingly unconnected, human tendencies that we all share, and the need to communicate with someone, anyone: these are all themes that one will find in Keith's novel, Cleveland Anonymous.

When I finished reading this novel I thought it was great, but I knew there was more to it; there was a substance below the surface that hadn't hit me yet, which is why I waited a couple weeks to write this review. I wanted it to be from a non-biased POV; and it is. I don't really know what to say, so I will try my best. I thought that by denying a genre, by concentrating on story, not a literary mindframe, which there is way too much of in contemporary fiction, that Gandal approached real life as closely as one can possibly achieve in fiction. The characters were amazing; the dialogue was real; the scenes were perfectly drawn out, perfectly realized, completely truthful; and the prose was dream-like, even magical. The atmosphere that Gandal's has created in this novel is fantastic. When I read a novel I look for something different, something real. I look at a book as an experience; I look at it as a piece of culture that can not and should not be detached from it's place in the world. And when I finished reading Cleveland Anonymous I had a sense of closeness and sense of story and literary attachment to the characters that I have not experienced in any other contemporary novel that I have ever read.

This novel is a wonderful accomplishment, an amazing piece of art, or literary achievement. If a good novel is supposed to give the reader an experience that utilizes all the senses and makes them care about the characters, then Gandal has written one heck of a good book! His fictive world is original and inspiring from not only a writers perspective, but from a human perspective.

I don't want to tell you anything about the plot (I think reviews should deal more with other, more 'inputish' type things, you'll know the plot when you read it!), but I can say that this book moves!! It moves with speed, with grace, with purpose, so fear not. It is a concise piece of fiction, a collection of people that all seem to exist in this modern world of ours without the slightest hint or notion that the bigger things that they experience shape them and make them who they are. But this is special. Too often an author will tell you what you need to know, but Gandal lets you figure it out; he writes a book filled with people, realistic people who think, act, and react like you and I do. If nothing else, read this book for a good, fast story, but if you, like me, like to see a writer experiment with the lives we take for granted everyday, then there is something here for you too.

The list of people who may have inspired this book must be immense, but here are some ideas: Thomas Pynchon (same sense of magical realism [though that is more Gabriel Garcia], the same witty sense of humor), Flannery O'Conner (short, sweet, but emotion filled sentences), Cormac McCarthy (the use of imagery), amongst many others.

Please read this novel. It is a magnificent story, and I hope that this review has inspired someone to pick up Keith Gandal's first (but hopefully not only) novel, but if you don't read it, at least I can say (when this thing hits big) that I told you so!!! Happy reading!

Sherwood's ghost and his readers may not like the ugly pullet on the cover, but inside is a collection of wonderful writing and story-telling. If you write fiction, read it and learn.

Read "I'm a Fool" and see if Salinger was really so innovative after all.

Anytime we get a chance to read something by one of Hemingway and Faulkner's mentors, it's bound to be a unique treat, but this book will surprise you if you haven't read Anderson before. His delicate use of pathos and delicious sense of humor feel so contemporary. We Loved "The Egg" especially as it seemed to capture the American entreprenurial spirit and its often discouraging results with an especially humorous irony. Faulkner was right--short stories require more of a writer, as every word must forward the author's intent, and Anderson's success here proves that, like Hemingway, he may have been a better short story writer than novelist.

I love reading short stories, and I think this is the best collection of stories I've ever read. I hope I get these titles right: I think especially notable are A Death In The Woods, The Corn Planting, Brother Death, The Other Woman, and The Masterpiece. There's not a bad story in here, and there are like 30 stories. I find Anderson's simple prose to be enchanting. His characterization is his strongest point; eighty years ago, he wrote characters to whom I can relate and understand today.

I have read this book a hundred times. As a mother of a daughter with CF I found in this book another who understood better than I did some of my feelings in helping my child battle this disease. Meg Woodard so understands her daughter it is amazing. She also lets us get to know Peggy in a very intimate manner and I felt as if they were both friends by the end of the book. Meg does not brush over some of her very real feelings and make her child a saint, and by not fictionalizing Peggy we are allowed a very raw portrayal of a mother /daughter relationship. I will always be greatful for this writers bravery and how her honesty helped me so much in my life.

I wish I had read this book much sooner in my life. My husband died of cystic fibrosis and so much of this book hit home. Meg writes with beautiful, honest, readable style. It is a shame this book is now out-of-print because it is an important book for all who deal with chronic illness from a patient or caregiver standpoint. It does not gloss over the difficult times or questions but very clearly offers hope in the midst of tragedy. We need more books like this to help us navigate the murky waters of "living in the shadow of death." Bravo, Meg Woodson. I can't wait to read your other books.

This book was a good narrative of the final six weeks in the life of a young adult with CF. The account gives an unblinking look at the realities of caring for a loved one with a terminal illness in its last stage. Meg Woodson shares her feelings with each development, both the frustration/anger and the joy. She does not gloss over anything, yet the story is one of victory rather than defeat. Meg and her daughter know she is dying, yet she does so looking forward to entering God's Kingdom where she will see her brother who died of CF 9 years previously. As someone who has walked a similar walk with a cardiac patient in the family, I recognized many of the issues and feelings Meg so artfully covers. It's an excellent read for anyone walking through serious illness or who has a loved one who is.

I bought a few copies as early Christmas gifts because I know my dad and brothers are big fans. After flipping through just the first few pages of photos and text, I knew I made the right choice. The author really covered his tracks. The photos are fantastic! There's no better time in the midwest than fall -- and this book seems to bring out the best of that season.

This book took me back to my high school years. I was a 320 pound offensive lineman. The 4 years I played high school football were the best of my life. I can never get them back, but with this book I was able to bring back all my memories. Chris and Jen have provided ex-jocks like me something to hold on to. I reccomend this book to anyone who wants some way to recall those glory years of high schoo.
Giles Powell.

Touchdown! This book drives the length of the field to take the reader on a journey through small towns and big cities who live and die for football. The tradition of Ohio High School Football is second to none and Butler's brilliant narration mixed in with interviews from coaches, players, parents and fans captures what Friday night in the fall is all about - a social gathering of sorts where football is the main focus. Rothchild's photography allows the reader to experience every facet of Friday night football from the star quarterback to the mom selling programs to raise money for the band.

Across Many Fields is a must for anyone who loves high school football.