Grasses by freelance gardening writer Nancy J. Ondra is a beautiful and practical guide to raising ornamental grasses in one's garden. Filled cover to cover with excellent color photographs by life-long gardener and gardening photographer Saxon Holt of aesthetic and splendid grasses, the profusely illustrated text presents the reader with a wide choice of colored grasses to best accentuate the beauty of one's garden and how to best select choice plants for wet, dry, hot, or shady sites. Highly recommended for personal and professional gardening, horticultural and landscaping reference collections, even non-gardeners will appreciate the dazzling, coffee-table book quality photography of this singularly elegant yet practical guide.

This volume is the first 12 issues of Growing Without Schooling reprinted in an easier-to-read font than the originals. These first newsletters were all written by Holt (versus staff writers) with the exception of some printed letters from readers. I have been subscribing to GWS for a few years but had never actually read anything written by Holt (who is now deceased). I was wonderfully delighted by these newsletters and could not put this book down.

These writings are a collection of subjects such as: suggesting homeschooling as an option to compulsory schooling, legal issues surrounding the ability to homeschool including having to make up one's own private school name, problems with formal schooling (public and private), how children learn naturally without much help from adults, and that children are capable of handling more responsibility than adults usually allow them to. Holt advises on how parents should deal with the school administrators such as when portfolio reviews are necessary. There is a good amount about the growing homeschooling movement and the legal issues; if that does not appeal to you then just skip over it and there is plenty of other information to make reading and buying this volume worthwhile. Holt includes some letters from readers and then responds, and other times he just prints up a response to issues raised by parents. Interspersed are ideas for ways to teach certain things better such as reading and writing and other useful tidbits. Holt also discusses various books that he has read and tells his opinions of them. Of note: these back issues are much more anti-school and negative in tone than the current issues of the magazine which focus more on just pro-homeschooling and are more of a positive attitude. Holt mentioned in one of these first issues that he hoped someday that GWS would evolve to be a forum for homeschooling families to write of their successes and I feel that indeed that is what has occurred. (The first issues were just Holt doing the writing and the current issues of GWS are almost all reader-submitted essays.)

Very readable and enjoyable. It made me want to buy all the back issues of GWS. I have since gone on to read some of Holt's books, which tackle specific areas (see my other reviews). As a homeschooling parent it made me feel more confident in both my children's natural ability to learn and of my ability as a person not educated in college as a schoolteacher to be capable and even a superior "teacher" for my own children.

I highly recommend that anyone thinking of homeschooling their children read this. Open-minded teachers would learn some helpful tidbits as well.

"Here lies our sovereign lord the king, whose word no man relies on, he never said a foolish thing, and never did a wise one"

That apt limerick (by one of King Charles' courtiers) provides the beginning to this third instalment of Jean Plaidy's Restoration and Charles II trilogy. In this book, Plaidy goes on to interweave the story of Nell Gwyn (one of Charles' favourite mistresses), and the King himself. The plot covers much of the (later) dramatic events that shaped Restoration England, from the bawdy houses to the playhouses, revealing King Charles II as a man dominated entirely by his love of peace (on the home front and abroad) and his fears for the succession after his death. Plaidy also shines the spotlight on Nell Gwyn, one of the most popular actresses of the Restoration era, and one of the king's favoured sleeping partners. She was beautiful, witty and a great actress, managing to learn her parts, despite not knowing how to read. This book gets into the heart of its characters, recreating events with a great deal of verve and imagination, and is certainly recommended for all lovers of historical fiction. And the Merry Monarch's response to the above riposte?. "The matter is easily resolved, my words are my own, the action's my ministry's."

Intended for the general reader, this well illustrated book is an atlas of the Earth from the Archean to the present. Geological concepts are explained well, and are tied together with the paleontology of various periods.

A BOOK REVIEW By Charlie J. Black

All of the three decades that I have known Pearl Gray Daniels, she has been involved with the pulse beat of people.

Uniquely, Pearl's growing up in the "Holt Street Church of Christ" lead her to being curious about "Its Role in Establishing Churches of Christ Among African Americans in Central Alabama." Thus, the basis of this book.

This book evolved through Pearl's entire life. A life that commenced with the uniting of her parents, Abraham and Nancy Jones Gray. A family that would include four brothers; one being Fred D. Gray, who, himself, would, at age 12, become a minister of the Church of Christ.

Pearl's book encompasses the paths and the paths of people who, because of the church, were able to survive in time of crisis; most notably, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, of which her 'baby' brother Fred was legal counsel.

In formulating this book, Pearl saw Alabama from a different prospective than a lot of her contemporaries. Before public education was taken for granted for black people, Pearl studied at Stillman College, a Presbyterian institution, and taught in Presbyterian schools in Wilcox County, Alabama.

Education, like church, to Pearl, is a continuing process. She has always been active in alumni organizations of Alabama State University and Stillman College. In Texas, in honor of her mother, Mrs. Nancy Jones Gray Arms, Pearl set up a scholarship at Southwestern Christian College.

Through Pearl's eyes, not only does the Holt Street Church of Christ have an illustrious past, it has a very promising future.

Charlie J. Black, Educator and Contemporary Writer. Author of: AFTER THE FACT: 20/20 HINDSIGHT.

The Washington Provider Syndicate

October 12, 1998

What a shame that this is out of print. I realized that my 1972 edition is getting a little old, so I had hoped to buy a newer, revised edition.

As a professional writer and editor, I collect and use grammar and style books. _Chicago Manual of Style_ might go into excruciatingly deep detail on some topics, but is quite sparse in other grammatical areas because so many of its pages are devoted to the profession of publishing, not the profession of writing.

Time and again, when Chicago has failed me (Or Elements of Style/Grammar, which are amazingly sparse for being "classics"), Holt has given me clear explanations and examples to solve my dilemma.

If you're a writer or editor, I think you'll appreciate having a copy of this book around.

If you are looking for a world studies introduction for youngsters look no further. This book has it all. From its comprehensive map aides to its sytematic and sensible presentation of the countries that make up our post-Cold War world, this lovely book is the best next thing to flying to those exotic places.I can't recommend it more highly.

I used this book in my undergraduate years frequently. It's basic structure focuses on the instruction and practice of expressive, imaginative, and expository writing. It does an excellent job of covering the different modes of organization: narration, description, process, classification, cause & effect, etc. The only possible drawback is its publication date:1984. However, a good book is timeless, and much like White's "Elements of Style," this book is still as useful and informative as the day it was published.

Interviews with dozens of "old timers" are written into easily read short personal stories. Earliest accounts are in the 1800's, and final stories are of the 1930's. The author's clear purpose is to save the stories of Nebraska pioneers for their descendents. However, the stories of immigration and settlement compound to give anyone new insight into North Central Nebraska in the first third of the 20th Century. 187 photos and 9 ink drawings help with understandings of fashion, mechanical devices, and characters in the accounts.

I still like Holt, but he's starting to wane. This is mainly because he is moving away from the Wodehouse/Benson situational type of humor to the Pratchett one-liner & pun type. No, that's not quite the description either. What Holt has been missing in these last few books is a simple coherency of plot. The plot is there, but rather than following one or two characters (Wodehouse tends to follow only one, the viewpoint character), Holt has taken to Douglas Adams-ing and going from direct narration by an omniscient and wise-cracking author to a maniac movement between three or four viewpoint characters. Is it funny? Yes, but the funny is a quick, brisk kind rather than the slow build-up.

_Here Comes the Sun_ is mainly a sendup of beauracracy. What if the universe were actually one big machine, that required drivers and mechanics for the sun, regional planners for weather, an idiot administration (there is, of course, no other kind of administration, so I guess that's an oxymoron), and the long- suffering support staff. Well, I can imagine it, and I think my imagination would cast it as a horor novel rather than as a comedy. I think _Here Comes the Sun_ worked better than the even-more maniacal _Overtime_, but I'd like to pass Holt some virtual valium and hope for a book more like _Goatsong_ the next time around.

I bought this book on impulse to give a new (to me) author a chance, and, boy, am I glad I did! Tom Holt writes intelligent humor that skewers all the most sacred notions you've ever held or heard of, and will leave you wanting the rest of his work. I will have to get everything else he's written, which seems to be something of a challenge, actually, but worth it. If you like Douglas Adams, you'll love this. Even if you don't like Douglas Adams, you may still like this.