If you like anecdotal stories about life in the late 1800s/early 1900s, you will like this book. It tells the story of a family that moves from the central ozarks of Missouri to Northwestern Colorado in the 1920s. It is autobiographical in nature, but the author is a superb storyteller and the pictures he paints of life in and around Craig, Colorado during the Great Depression are poignant and vivid. (True for the telling of the trip from Missouri to Colorado, as well.) Anyone who is interested in Colorado history, life during the Great Depression, or simple human interest stories about real poepl in real life will enjoy this book. For those who are not related to the author, the brief sections about family geaneologies might be a little boring, but these are a small part of the book and do not detract from the overall book. If you are from Northwest Colorado, who knows? Your name might be in the book (or at least one of your ancestors). There are also a few stories dating before the life of the author concerning events that were told to him by the people involved.

Evver wonder what life was like on a Colorado ranch back when the West was still young? This book will make you feel like you were there. Well-written and hard to put down.

Mr. Irby's book tells it like it was with a generous dose of humor. It also has some great genealogy info. You can really feel the cold of those winter nights, the hardships and the good times they all had. A hard book to put down!!

I read 75-80 novels a year and this was hands down the best read of 2002. Moving, thought provoking, a wonderful historical characterization of a time and era, absolutely vivid characters, and surprises throughout. I always choose a top read of the year and this is the second time Mr Harington has topped the list for me. Not many novels make you feel you're there; this one does.

I loved this book, as well as all of Mr. Harington's books. I was lucky enough to have him as a professor in college...

CHOIRING OF THE TREES resonates with memorable aspects. Harrington develops the setting of this story in masterful detail, capturing the essence of life in a remote, turn-of-the-century Ozark community called Stay More, Arkansas. Rich with lore and colloquial expressions, this novel is particularly poignant as regional fiction, but excellent literature by anyone's standard. The story includes a few actual people from Arkansas history and it graphically portrays the brutality of the Arkansas prison system as it was prior to World War I. CHOIRING. . . is an interesting exploration of justice as well as a touching love story, but most importantly, it is a compelling read. Harrington develops convincing and lovable characters who are hard to abandon when the story is finished, and remarkably, he accomplishes all of this in the voice of a female narrator.

In January, I read bestselling COLD MOUNTAIN by Charles Frazier, and I admired it greatly. CHOIRING OF THE TREE! S, also an odyssey, is in my estimation even better.

When our book club chose this book as part of its new author day, I thought "what kind of trash is this." But like a good shot of moonshine, it was revolting enough to leave its mark and tasty enough to make me want more. HOnestly, why hasn't this guy gotten his due? There is more slick writing, quirky characters and raunchy adventure i nthis book then many books twice its length. And with the lead character a sort of hillbilly writer/philosopher (that is not a contradiction in terms!) one has a narrator throughout the book who never fails to make you laugh. THe book centers around the adventures of Redmond Doyle, a hack writer who returns home to the Ozarks from a more "high falutin" environment, only to find out that you cannot escape your past or your roots. As he gets pulled into the inevitable feuds and violence that is part of Ozark lore, he wonders why he ever left in the first place.With plenty of fights, sex, hillbilly weirdness and the ramblings of the main character, the book is liike a canoe ride down the river in Deliverance. It will make you squeal like a pig!

With this novel Woodrell, author of the Shade detective books and a fantastic historical novel called WOE TO LIVE ON, really moved into a great, seldom explored terrain. Doyle and the rest of his clan are what some would call [bad people]. Hillbillies. Rednecks. Whatever. Any such simplistic term could be easily applied, but what these characteres really are is human beings. And this is certainlyu to Woodrell's credit.

If you've never read Woodrell before, I'd say start here. This book is a kind of half-way mark between his older crime novels and his more recent and absolutely amazing TOMATO RED and THE DEATH OF SWEET MISTER. Imagine if Jim Thompson had written more books like POP. 1280, HEED THE THUNDER, and NOW AND ON EARTH and you might be hitting close to what Woodrell's up to.

Doyle is a writer who, after ditchinghis old life, stealing his ex-wife's car (complete with bad makeshift paintjob), ends up in the Ozarks working on a cash crop scheme...with his brother Smoke and Smoke's lady friend Big Annie and, I wouldn't dare forget, Big Annie's daughter, Niagra. What ensues is lust, blood, and more than a few good twists to keep you hooked in right up to the end.

Now, this is not Woodrell's best. Since I'm not Woodrell I can only guess that with this novel he was still testing out this new territory. By the time TOMATO RED came along, hellfire, the guy was smokin'! Read this, then go on and read everything that's come along since, but also be sure to go back and check out WOE TO LIVE ON for a take on the Civil War that those history teachers would've hated to relate.

One last night, for just a plain old good time, check out the three Rene Shade novels. It's fun to see a writer develope from just good to downright spectacular.

Why do truly creative writers like Woodrell get overshadowed by the mass market pap and hack writers? Woodrell tells great stories with original spins on what some might call stock pulp fiction characters in neat, compact books that his best selling contemporaries attempt to tell with less entertaining and often outright dull results and they do so in 300, 400+ pages! I read this book based on its subtitle and the slick jacket blurb. Holt knows to publish and package a good crime novel. I'm starting on Woodrell's earlier stuff now. He and John Straley are the two writers who deserve a lot more attention and a lot more readers.

The book is a compilation of the author's articles on all aspects of fishing the Arkansas and Missouri tailwaters of the White River system. All manner of tackle and technique are discussed and there are in-depth interviews with area fishermen. It's an interesting look at the unique fishing culture of the area.

This book offers a great compilation of fishing information, recommendations, locations and good ol' fish stories that is a must-have if you consider or if you do fish the White River System of Arkansas and Missouri. Steve has all the essential scoop plus great added information that is helpful to the seasoned veteran as well as the first-timer to the area. You will read this book over and over and refer to it often when it comes time to go fishing. Get two copies so your friend doesn't "borrow" it forever. A Must Have!

A good friend of mine about 4 years ago was telling me about this amazing book he purchased. I borrowed it from him one day, and unfortunately for him, I have yet to return it.Sorry, Micah!One day I'll return, but it will be difficult!This book is amazing! I am 26 years of age, and began trout fishing when I was 7. It's amazing how addictive trout fishing is, and how it gets in your blood. Only duck hunting can compare, for those of you that know what I'm talking about! Since 1999, several old high buddies and myself have frequented the Norfork River resort at the town of Norfork for a little reunion and some good trout fishing. We usually go sometime in late winter, usually late Feb. or early March. Each year we have come back, I always start reading my Ozark Trout Tales book to freshen up on my strategies and techniques on how I'm going to fish. Most of all, this book gets me pumped up about the upcoming trip. About a month before the trip, I literally fall asleep almost every night reading a few of the stories from this book. My wife thinks I have a serious problem! I can't recommend this book enough for you trout anglers. I have read this book cover to cover probably about 20 times, maybe more! Trust me, you'll do the same!

After the kids were snug in their sleeping bags and tents, their parents would pop the corks on their favorite brews and this collection of dirty, one-pager, country stories was passed from person to person around the campfire and read aloud. People would literally fall over, roaring with laughter, gasping for breadth. And often,the reader was paralized with laughter and couldnt continue. The stories are red neck filthy and funny beyond words. I didnt get the cultural relevance, I was too busy laughing. Not for the politically correct.

I took a strange but ultimately interesting course in American Folklore back at good old MWC. Our Professor made us read this book, and I can never thank him enough. I am still not sure what the purpose of us reading this book was, but the stories were hilarious. I laughed so much reading these stories. Many of which were simply extended dirty jokes. This was by far the best book I read at college. I don't know much about Folklore, but at the very least if you want to read a funny book, get pissing in the snow.

This book is a great collection of Ozark Folktales and stories. I wouldn't recomend reading this book to a 10 year old because of the content of some of the stories, but I would recomend this book to the older reader who would appreciate the wit and humor.

Some of the other reviewers of this book found it hilarious, I did not. It was interesting to read, offered some good insights on things to do and things to avoid before moving to the country, but it just wasn't all that funny, really. In fact, I found some parts of it to be just too much gloom and doom!

I don't live in the country now (although I'd like to) but I do own livestock, which I board with friends who have a farm. And based on my experiences on my friends farm, this book focuses too much on the bad things that can happen, and not enough on how many wonderful things can occur when you live in the country.

Mind you, these folks go head over heels. It's not necessary to move so far out of town that you're off the grid in order to own livestock and live a country life. One doesn't have to grow or raise all of one's food, it is possible to live in the country and still go to the store in town on a regular basis (bad weather or no.) All in all this is an ok book, but not as lighthearted as the other reviewers seem to think.

This book is so funny, it should be a best seller. Even if you don't plan to move to a farm, read this book. You'll get a lot of laughs. If you plan on moving to the country, definitely read this book!

This book is written to be funny and easy to read, but yet it presents some very worthwhile insight into what one might encounter when giving up the comforts of city life. Although parts seem to be a bit dated, for example, I can't imagine someone moving to the country and doing without electricity for 3 years. Nor do I believe anyone would rely on strictly wood as a heat source in today's environment. Some of the episodes in this book would make good material for a Disney movie. I'd highly recommend it for anyone who is considering giving up the good life for a trip back to the basics of country living.

As a fan of the Little House books, I've read Laura's stories many times. But before she wrote them, she wrote for the newspapers about farm life. This gives such an exciting peak at her adult life, her "what happened next" years, that any true fan should read it.

This is a collection of newspaper articles Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote about life in the Ozarks. Many of the articles are full insights into life that still apply today. She wrote about farmer's wives being equal in importance to their husbands, the frustration of dealing with "new technology" (in her case a new washing machine), and many other day to day activities on the farm.

Laura Ingalls' writing for adults, through a newspaper column she did weekly from 1911-1925, is highly amusing, and very thought-provoking for those of us living now in Psychobabble, Let It All Hang Out, Complain and Whine and Blame and Brood California.

Her advice is to simply refrain from even commenting on one's troubles, and avoid thinking about the negative things, the things one can't do anything about.

Try to be positive, try to see that work is necessary, and don't avoid one's job and chores, or you make yourself more miserable.

ARe these the commonsense things that today's adults or children ever hear, outside of a church sermon or Reader's Digest?

It reminds me of my early days in Germany, when slowly the meaning of the old folksongs began to penetrate as I learned the German vocabulary. I'd heard them, hummed with them, and played the kazoo and danced to them; but when I finally understood the lyrics, I realized what a completely different time and place they came from. They encourage people to stand up and enjoy their lives, the chance to walk in the flowers of springtime, to make friends, to have a drink with colleagues or family, to see one's beloved again, and to rejoice that God made you at all.

When I met older Germans, they seemed often to still embody such positive efforts and mentality, in contrast to the American-like cynicism of the young.

This will strike you - assuming you are an adult reading this - when you read Laura Ingalls' columns. I don't know what children would think, but I think they'd like them. They're straight and honest and true, just as she advises us to be.

This was an amazing book, especially because it was all apparently collected firsthand from the people who practiced the things in it. It's interesting and easy to read, packed with information, and though some of the things Ozark mountain people were concerned with may no longer be germane to people living in the modern world, it provides a fascinating look at folk customs, magic, and a body of lore that has most likely all but disappeared by now.

My parents still live in the Ozarks, and I recognised some of the things that were common superstitions, phrases, etc.
I found it very entertaining to read, and being born in MO myself, and having lived in some of those areas on and off, made it even more enlightening.
I also noticed tiny hints here and there of the Scottish influence, as that is my ancestry, and something I spend much time studying. Many did settle in the hills around there when they came, preferring that over cities. Makes it even more intriguing, that some bits peek out, mingled and changed with the new culture.
Good stuff!

Wonderful lifetime body of research collected as he lived among the Ozark people. I grew up in Ozark Co. in the 60's-70's and was fortunate to see and hear much of the rich folklore he records. For an outsider (even marrying into an Ozark clan didn't make him a local boy) Randolph obtained a staggering amount of information which is presented in a humerous yet respectful style. When so much of our culture preverted for the neon cash/trash of Branson it's refreshing to read Randolph and remember when stories were told around wood fired stoves and in the summer's evening on front porches. Anyone interested in the real Ozarks should read this...and before you dismiss it all as ignorant fantasy,I can attest that witching water works, and I've touched the otherworldly feather crowns found in death pillows among many other oddities he records.....can't explain it but here it is for what it's worth.

_Baby, Would I Lie?_ is the sequel to Donald Westlake's _Trust Me on This_. That book concerned Sara Joslyn's time working for the Weekly Galaxy, a sleazy tabloid. At the end of that book Sara and her editor, now lover, Jack Ingersoll, manage to escape to New York and respectable journalism, in the form of Trend, a weekly modelled as far as I can tell on the New Yorker.

As this book opens, Sara is on her way to Branson, MO. Her latest assignment is to cover the murder trial of Ray Jones, a middle-aged country music star with a theater in Branson. One of Jones' employees was found murdered and dumped in Table Rock Lake, and Ray's car was seen with incriminating bloodstains. The evidence against him is purely circumstantial, and fairly weak, but the trial is also being held in the court of public opinion.

As Sara arrives, she encounters to her dismay some of her former colleagues from the Weekly Galaxy. Naturally, they too are covering this celebrity trial. And before long Jack is in Branson as well, chomping at the bit to nail the Galaxy at their nefarious journalistic tricks.

The story is told from several points of view, but mostly those of Sara and Ray Jones. We soon learn that Ray is also in trouble with the IRS, and we get hints that he is not guilty of the murder but that he knows more than he is letting on, and that he has some curious scheme afoot. Much to the dismay of his legal team, which is confident they can get him off if they can keep him reined in. Meanwhile, he is mysteriously letting Sara have significant access to his legal preparations, much to the further consternation of his lawyers. Is he setting up Sara somehow?

The resolution is pretty clever with a nice twist or two. Westlake's portrayal of Branson, a town I know reasonably well, is not bad. (There are one or two missteps, and it's rather out of date. (The book was published in 1994, and depicts the town as it was in perhaps 1990 or so.)) He tries somewhat to avoid stereotyping Midwestern tourists, with limited success. He is pretty sound (and on the whole, sympathetic) on the country musicians themselves, though. The lyrics to Ray Jones' songs are all by Westlake, and they are quite good country pastiches. Ray Jones himself is well depicted -- not exactly a nice man, but not a monster, either. And the book is quite funny.

Like a book you can't put down, this audiodisc is one I couldn't turn off. Nicola Sheara (Reader)brings a unique -- and believable -- voice to every character and enthuses the prose with a sense of lively anticipation. Other reviewers have commended the writer; I want to be sure that audio tape/disc listeners know that they won't be disappointed in this rendition of a very entertaining tale.

Donald Westlake writes books with characters that you just can't help but like. They can be, as in the great Dortmunder series, felons, burglars, kidnappers, but they are all likable. In this book, his characters are tabloid journalists, who are only a step above the lowest of the lows, defense attorneys. He skewers them, but some of them, DARN IT, you can't but help liking.

I liked this book second favorite.New Dawn On Rocky Ridge was my favorite.In this book,Rose and her parents move into town becuase of tornadoes,fires and droughts on the farm.She meets new friends, and watches her freind Swiney change his name to Nate.

This book is just great. Rose is one of my favorite character. She like to read books and has a great appeal. I think every girl who are around 11~12 would find this book wonderful. So I give 5 stars to this book.

This book is absolutely terrific! Rose Wilder adjusts to life in Mansfield, away from her beloved Rocky Ridge Farm. She meets many new people, has exciting experiences, and also falls in love with her best friend Paul Cooley.