Excellent case study of how invention grew a city and the company-city relationship. Demonstrates

the importance of innovation and how industries die if they don't embrace change.

The effect on the Akron people is excellent.

Don't let the word "Ohio" in this title fool you. This is a resource book for writers, wherever they may reside.

Because sometimes the very last is best, let's start there. Check out the appendix. Ohio literary agents may be just as effective as any, right? And editorial services can be rendered from Ohio as well as from a writers' home town now that we all know how to attach documents to e-mail. Community resource centers? The Cleveland State University has a poetry center, and the four pages of other schools of advanced learning in this book are sure to have home study courses, literary journals and other services for writers everywhere. Most are listed with URLs and e-mail addresses.

Elsewhere in this book a writer will find useful awards and prizes, book fairs, poetry readings, publishers, retreats, and on and on. Ohio isn't a foreign country. Writers write there and readers read! Ohio is a RESOURCE. But then author Lavern Hall knows this all too well.

Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of "This is the Place"

"Yesterday's Cincinnati" is a good beginner's guide into Cincinnati histories. The pictures are numerous and informative; the text is instructive, and sometimes witty. This pictorial history 's strongest point is also its weakest: it is brief. This is good, in that it sparks the reader's interest to delve deeper into Cincinnati's past: how sudden was the '37 flood; just who WAS Boss Cox; what ever became of the defunct subway system? But these things are not explained in this brief history, and leaves the reader wanting more, yet not pointing him or her in a direction in which more can be found.

As a beginner's guide in the histories of a city, I rate this book rather highly, because of its brevity. If you are interested in a glimpse under the crown of the Queen City from her beginnings to the mid-1900's, Luke Feck provides a wonderful starting step for you!

Excellent story and thoughtful characters, though they are not lovable characters, the plot was great. Then the end of the story came and it was pretty pitiful for an ending. Ms. Hightower needs to work on her character development and continue to tell the story without getting side tracked like she does. The concept of the story is great and the plot keeps you glued to the pages, but that still does not save this book.

liked it but didn't love it. good for the plane.

GREAT DETAIL. GRIPS THE READER FROM CHAPTER ONE. YOU WILL NOT PUT THIS ONE DOWN UNTIL YOU ARE ON THE LAST PAGE. THEN, YOU WILL RUN OUT TO GET COPIES OF HER OTHER BOOKS. WILL WE EVER SEE KEETON AGAIN? I KEEP SENDING LYNN MESSAGES TO BRING HIM BACK.

After reading reviews for this book I was given it as a gift several months ago. I completed the two books I wanted to read before "The Evidence Against Her" and, when I finally got to pick it up I almost wish I never had. What a disappointment! I realize that it is a slow-paced novel that takes place in a much slower time. But it's slow to the point of being stuck in the mud. The character development drags. You kind of know where the characters are going but by the time they get there you have lost interest.

I did plod along and finish the novel. The story is somewhat interesting but the pace and dialogue dragged a bit too much. Hey, there is no slower town than Mitford but I can't put Jan Karon's books down!

In her latest novel, National Book Award-winning author Robb Forman Dew delineates how, at the remove of time and space, the intricacies of existence assume the aura of truth.
Dew begins this first volume of a trilogy by discussing the births of three central characters, born hours apart, in late- nineteenth-century smalltown Ohio. These children, two of whom are cousins, grow up as friends until two of them marry each other, causing their childhood alliances to shift and shatter and seek resolution by means that may resolve their sense of loss and soothe their insecurities but that also, in so doing, cause their loved ones to suffer. Indeed, the dilemma presented both by and to Dew's distinct, equisitely drawn characters is that of the human condition. Over time, feelings translated into actions assume the aura of the truth by which people judge themselves and each other. However, the truth that translates as history is as tenuous and unreliable as are relationships themselves.
But Dew is not a pessimist; her vision, like her language, is transcendent. The last sentence of The Evidence Against Her reads, "And always there was a moment when it seemed to Agnes that it wasn't the case that darkness fell; it was really the light, all the voices, and complaints--the doings of any particular day--slowly evaporated, leaching upward into the wide, absorbent sky." Such masterful command of the language combined with the profundity of Dew's themes causes The Evidence Against Her to be among the best books of the year.

This is a magnificent novel: gorgeously written, heartbraking, funny at times...it's the work of a laureled American novelist at the height of her powers.

I began reading The Evidence Against Her yesterday around 10 a.m. and could not put it down. It is the story of two families living in late 19th- and early 20th- century Ohio, but it could just as easily be set in Chekhov's Russia or Lawrence's England, for its appeal and its message are universal. The story focuses on luminously-drawn Agnes, the unwitting anchor and scapegoat of a troubled family. I have no doubt that Agnes will eventually take her place beside Hardy's Tess, Austen's Emma, Tolstoy's Natasha, and the other great female protagonists of Western literature.

This is a literary novel, but it is also deeply entertaining. Dew is one of a handful of writers currently working who manages to be both at once. This is a novel to be read at least twice, I think: first for the thrilling story and second to savor the richly textured prose and exquisitely observed scenes. I plan to start it again soon.

Don't miss this book!

Dorthy Garlock's Love and Cherish has an insipid meandering excuse for a plot. She drudges along a well worn path through historical romanance: the lovely but tiny young maid falls in love with the huge life-harden man and in turn wins his heart. I love a good roamance with a happy ending, but this is entirely too predictable. The dialogue is so honeyed, it is laughable. If this book is publishable, we should all give writing a book a try!

This is a charming little story, with a little of the hardships of the time. No, this is not Ms. Garlock's best... and no, there is not quite enough emotional conflict to carry the story for the 343 pages. However, it is a sweet story. If you're looking for a simple story without too much conflict, this is it!

Cherish spends the entire book letting Sloan determine the route of the relationship, and giving into his every whim. Unlike most of Ms. Garlock female characters, Cherish is quite dependent on Sloan. Otherwise, it's a good story.

Cherish Riley is displaced from her Virginian home and lost and alone with some crude grunts. She is waiting for the return of her brother but the crud wants to trade her off to some weasels.

She takes off to try and disappear into the forests along the Kentucky river. Mind you, this is Daniel Boone's time in history.

Terror, fear and exhustion dog her footsteps until she is rescued by a bear of a man and his unapproachable dog, Brown. [grin] Blink yourself into her time and see how you would fare. Traveling in October with no real warm clothing had to be a trial in itself. Sloan did his best to provide for Cherish.

Sloan Carroll is looking to pick up a wife to take home to his homestead to take care of his brother's child. Cherish is an angelic answer to his problem and he determines to return home sooner than expected. And he intends to keep his heart intact. No falling in love and giving any woman emotional power over him.

Except for those blasted Hurons slowing him down. The Frenchie, Pierre is one lovable character and puts Cherish at ease. It's not easy being seventeen in a land of men, and one needs a man's protection.

I could feel the freezing cold and exhustion of the characters as they arived home needing the help of Juice and True to make it inside. These two men turn out to be true friends.

The advent of Ada coming for her baby, Orah Delle and stalking Sloan was a bit wicked. And then the doubts raised by Minnie Dove and her pursuit of Sloan and the friendship of John Spotted Elk began to round out Cherish's life in the small community.

I don't see how she got over the visual extermination of the river rats so quickly - [I would still be having nightmares]but Cherish had the support of so many friends. I hope John Spotted Elk gets a story and a woman of his own.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED [if you can get in tune with the times.] I couldn't put it down and to me that makes an excellent story.

Power Rangers gone mad is all I could think about while listening to this audio book. Maybe a cross between the Twilight Zone and some Saturday morning cartoon mutants. Richard Bachman, or should I say Stephen King was really letting his imagination go crazy on this one.

Small town Ohio, a hot summers day, and a malicious red van; suddenly, gun barrels come out of the windows of the van and people begin getting blown away where they stand. That's the start of it. Page after page of people being wasted. This is probably the bloodiest book Bachman/King has ever done.

Where did these mutants come from? Who's controlling them? Most importantly, who can stop them? To find out the answers to these questions your going to have to read the book.

Why did I give this book only 3 stars? Simple, just as I stated in the first paragraph. It was almost like Bachman/King was sitting in front of the TV watching Power Rangers or something with his kids and thought, "Gee, if I made these guys evil, what a book I would have". It by far wasn't the worst book I've read by this author, but it wasn't the best either. Good plot, but to me it seemed obvious that it was a twist on something gotten from TV.

OK, OK, so TV has something to do with the plot of the book, after all this is fiction. But for a writer as great as King, he could have done better.

I have read many books by Mr. King and I have also read some of his Bachman books and I can't say that any of them are bad. In fact, if you read some of my other reviews for this author, you will see that Thinner is probably the only book I have rated as below average.

If you like Bachman/King, you will like this book; however, don't be surprised when you find the plot simplistic and predictable.

I came in to reading The Regulators having no idea what to expect. I come away amazed, thrilled, and glad to have made a good purchase. The plot twists, great character developments, surprises, and the odd format kept me reading, and hanging on every word. The details come pouring in, and the story unfolds. It takes place in Wentworth, Ohio, as a massacre occurs in the middle of a beautiful summer day. Poplar Street begins to look like Main Street, Desperation, Nevada, circa 100 years ago...but one house, that of one Audrey Wyler, remains untouched, her autistic nephew within. The story is interspliced with news clippings, journal entries, and teleplays that give a hint of what comes in the next chapters...none of it expected. How "Bachman" manages to keep the dozen or so essential characters fully developed is really amazing, and the story is a great one. This was the first Steven King book I've read, although I didn't realize it until I had finished. A couple days later, I found King's (really him this time) book "Desperation", with similar characters in a familiar setting. I bought it then and there. Needless to say, I must insist you purchase Richard Bachman's "THE REGULATORS"--You won't be disappointed, I guarantee it!

Here we go. After 10 years, Stephen King exhumed his well-known Bachman pseudonym. This volume, and companion 'Desperation', share the characters, although having read one, you will be seriously surprised how he shuffled the cast of characters. I claim that this is an outrageously excellent idea - haven't seen one so far. Bravo! This has been my greatest pleasure of reading those two books one after another. This one I read first, and strongly recommend doing so. Characters are introduced within first several pages, whereas in 'Desperation', there are substantial lags between the intros of particular heroes. Reading in this fashion, you will wonder and wonder, how else the characters were mutated in the latter book. I guess that guys who reversed the sequence were equally amazed, but in the way I can't grasp right now. 'Regulators' is a fast-paced, dark, cruel novel, ideal for the cinema script. I actually found it thrilling. The lonely suburban street in the middle of nowhere, Ohio. A sequence of vans enter the street. The massacre rampage begins. Put yourself into such a situation. Try at least. Now, I guess that fashions and dedication to teleseries and film characters inspired King to construct the main theme of the book. The nedd to identify with flawless celuloid heroes. Detachement from reality, which usually in now way resembles the pastel environment of television and movies. For those who are bored with the idea of a small kid with supernatural powers, who always survives the mess King envisions in his numerous novels: here there are no winners. Especially among kids. Who said that Bachman is just King without a consicence? Last comment - the book design is very inventive, as you will see if you purchase the hardcover edition. I am a book-lover and felt fetished by this carefully edited volume. Go for it!

The book The Borning was well written but was very dry. I read this book in the 8th grade. I could not even keep on track on what I was reading. I would wonder off in to La-La land. I did not even finsh the book. I just gave up on it.

The Borning Room is narrated by young Georgina Lott during the 1800's. Her house was built by her grandfather in 1820 with a borning room behind the kitchen. The room was used for delivering babies and for the ill to stay in so they wouldn't leave any diseses in their rooms. Georgina tackles growing up with hardships and happieness. She vows not to have babies until she witnesses her own mother deliver Zeb, her baby bother. All the happieness and greif happens in the borning room with family and friends...Paul Fleichman is the talented writer of The Borning Room who writes with a thoughtful heart. This is an easy book to read and I would recomend this book to girls who like to read about girls from the past. I enjoyed this book and hope that you'll get to read it someday and like it too!

I was astonished at the quality of "The Borning Room", considering the theme - birth and death - rather difficult for children. Yet, the story is told so undramatically and beautifully, and births and deaths are so much woven into the fabric of everyday life, that after reading one feels less sad than moved by the beauty and importance small things in life gain in this story.

I usually read a book in about two days, regardless of the story-line. It took me a week and a half to finish this book. I must say, it was absolutely awful. I was being used a gineau pig to read the book first. I gladly accepted my role, because I love to read. I was so upset with myself for even opening the book. It left a lot to be desired. It did not flow very well at all. I still don't even know what the book was about. It had too much going on. You couldn't even follow the story line. I hated it. I hated it.

Before I start, read the other reviews prior to this one. They cover enough elements of the story itself. What I want to review is the MOOD and REWARDS of the book; how it rates with other books that are marketed to the same people (Black women).

I'll be this honest: I had, like a lot of people I know who love to read (not just love the idea THAT they are particpating in the act of reading, but find that they have a true passion for words and seek out original, fresh ideas), recently gotten sick of most of the books by Black authors out here. Every book was a romance, and most of them thinly veiled attempts to pass off autobiography-diary as epistolary fiction. On top of that, if I had to read another so-so written book by someone in first person narrative ("I woke up this morning next to a man I met the night before", "I went to the club", "I..."), I was going to cut up my library card. I am so sickened by the better part of these works that I almost hate walking down the Black aisle in a bookstore...so much incestuous ripping-off and just plain bad stuff.

So when I saw "Faraday's", I was wary. I picked it up and read the jacket and checked out the author's pic. I flipped to the middle of the book to see what perspective the story was being told in ("aghh! First person! And MULTIPLE, at that!"). I sighed, I hemmed and hawed.

Then I read the first 10 pages.

They started off in short, sweet journal-like entries, which were easily dissovable and got me interested. I'd become accustomed to letting the same ol' normal words in the same ol' normal situations wash over me and getting the story through a feeling of the book, but I couldn't get through these passages that way. I had to stop and go "equinoxes" and "sparkling solitude"; literaly say the words aloud a bit to taste them.

I like a book that challenges me, that makes me think and feel at the same time; that makes me want to add words to my everyday speech. "Faraday's" does that to stunning effect. I admit, this is not a book for the average book club group accustomed to "Cheaters" or "How Stella..."; this is high reading for solitary, moody evenings, and you almost have to prepare yourself before sitting down with it.

Thank God a book can still make me want to do that.

I love this story so much I have read it twice. Every sentence is poetry. It taught me that love is blind , unselfish, strong,and can make life so beautiful. This is not the typical romance, but it's about the strongest connection between two people.Clement,a spiritual force, who has a physical effect on the world,took one look at Willow ( the main character) and had to meet her."I came to love you," he says to her at the end of the book. My heart melted. Every kiss, every touch was detailed with emotion out of the ordinary.This book was actually really full with emotion and passion. It is wonderfully crafted in the characters' point of view. If you want to taste magical,heart- lifting, soul-inspiring love, read the this book

This book was a challenge for me to read, it took me three weeks (and I normally average ~800 pages/week.) The idea of a future catastrophically altered by nano piqued my intrest, but it never came to fruition. There were constant references to nano-plagues and the "Information War" that made the world what it was but these things were never explained. It is hard to accept a background of zero substance.

The writing style bothered me also. I found myself reminded of Falkners "The Sound and the Fury" with the mid-sentence change in perspective from human to bee and back again. Most of the characters were either discussed in exquisit detail and later turned out to have no real bearing on the out come of the story, or were hardly developed but played a crutial role in the unfolding of the story.

So if you want a post-nano-apocolyptic tale I would suggers looking elsewhere, unless you enjoy confusion, tedium and jaunted reading.

After the first 150 pages I was entranced. Goonan wove such a wonderful backdrop. I wanted it to go on and on.

Well, be careful what you wish for-- it does go on and on.

Shakers pulled together by plague and fear, a city full of arts run by bees and flowers, a little girl with nodes behind her ears and a strange sense of destiny, a world gone nanotechnology mad where sick people flow like lemmings down the river.

The ideas are exactly as magical and wonderful as they sound, but the plot is not able to live up to their weight. By the time Verity had been running around Cincinnati for a while, I was heartily sick of the whole thing and found there to be *way* too many pages to string out her secret. I would have far preferred that everything in the book happen (condensed) in the first half of an even longer book that took you some place beyond Cincinnati itself.

I still plan to read the sequel.

This review is for both QUEEN CITY JAZZ and the sequel MISSISSIPPI BLUES, as I just read both back to back. Although both novels may to some people be too long, after having read them both I found them to contain excellent character development and also a great story. Both books center on nanotechnology, in the medium term future, and it's effects on the characters, and the country as a whole, very well done. Of course, if this doesn't appeal to you, read one of Arthur C. Clarke's outdated space operas. These two books are first class science fiction, with hard science thrown in, you won't find any fantasy here. I especially liked the morality and down to earth world views of the characters. Now we need another sequel.

One final note, if you like hard science fiction, also read THE FIRST IMMORTAL by James Halperin, a very good book, also with nanotechnology thrown in.