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.

Sure, Mark Twain was pretty good, but what's he done lately? The Greatest Living American Humorist (take that, Garrison Keillor!) you've never heard of is Mitch Jayne who, like Twain before him, is a Missourian and a storyteller par excellence. As a founding member of The Dillards, Jayne regaled bluegrass audiences with his country store brand of whimsy before "retiring" to a second career as a humor columnist for newspapers and magazines. The bedrock of Jayne's humor has always been his adopted home, the Ozarks, a region apparently supernaturally fertile for producing bushels of funny stuff. "Home Grown Stories..." is Jayne's autumnal harvest of a lifetime spent soaking up the peculiar language of a peculiar people in a peculiar land and his magician's trick of making you homesick for a place you've never been.

Jayne commences with his personal definition of the Ozarks in a brilliant passage that is as compact and elegantly pastoral as the lyrics he wrote for The Dillards' song catalog. It's the only serious prose in the book, after which Jayne whisks the reader to the funny stuff. The book's loose structure as a sort of reluctant autobiography allows Jayne to go off on as many storytelling detours as he is wont, and he is very, very wont. Just about EVERYTHING reminds Jayne of a funny story, and it's to his everlasting credit how seamlessly he works his bottomless pickle barrel of them into the narrative. Most of the stories are about real Ozarkians Jayne has known and, because they're an earthy people, he's occasionally obliged for authenticity's sake to use words never uttered in Floyd's Barber Shop. For the most part, though, Jayne keeps the ribaldry on a PG-13 level that won't do anyone any lasting harm.

Jayne describes Ozarkians as "...people who had little commerce with modern speech and liked their own better" and his love affair with Ozark English - surely an oxymoron - is writ large on every page. Ozarkians speak "Mother Tongue" (inherited language), which abounds in quaint, majestic words (countenance, blackguard) that have a distinctly Shakespearian ring to them and homemade sayings so rustic, they'd bewilder Snuffy Smith. Knowing how daunting the dialect is, Jayne has kindly included an Ozark dictionary to help readers decipher sentences like, "Some eats boughten vittles, but I always take a bait of dinner in a poke." Say what??

A raconteur as freewheeling as Jayne needs an illustrator of equal passion and versatility. In Diana Jayne, his wife and "other, wiser half," he has exactly that. Working in a variety of styles and mediums, Ms. Jayne's black and white drawings of everything from Andy Griffith and the Darling Boys to a killer ostrich (really!) and a hearing aid from hell (Jayne writes candidly about being "as deaf as a snake") are charming, funny and, sometimes, downright striking. Her portrait of Zeke Dooley, an uproariously colorful hillbilly character Jayne created for his wildly inventive "Hickory Holler Time" radio program (my favorite chapter), is a masterpiece truly worth a thousand words.

"Home Grown Stories..." is too dang much fun and contains too much plain-spoken wisdom to read just once "to beguile the time," as an Ozarker would put it. It's a book worthy of revisiting whenever you want to laugh or whenever you need to be reminded that, in this vale of dross and tears, "even a blind hog finds an acorn sometimes." Not to mention, it'd come in real handy if you ever got lost in the jillikins and benastied yourself.

I have read this book and all the reviews of it. Both the book and the reviews are entirely true. How any educated or uneducated person can live without it is beyond my understanding except that most of the Ozarks now has indoor plumbing. Mitch Jayne and his wife, Diana, have written a wonderful book that combines verbal and visual humor. Diana has given us sketches that are funny and real and honest. Mitch has given us stories with bark on them that remind us why people love the Ozarks as tears roll down their face from laughter. But lest you think this is a book of jokes, be warned. It is also book written in a graceful style about life in and out of the Ozarks and the English language that separates the Ozarker from Americans. Only Donald Harington and Vance Randolph have been able make such a combination work. Add Mitchell F. Jayne of the Dillards and Darling Boys to that list.

I took HOME GROWN STORIES with me on vacation. The characterss are so true and the images so vivid, it was as if I carried a piece of home in my pocket. Jayne's literary canvas is large, the quiet Missouri hills, the folk music road, Hollywood and TV; but he paints his stories with such attention to detail that the reader is totally drawn in. I especially loved the one-room school stories, they are both nostalgic and timely as we watch so many unique folkways disappear. Jayne's gentle, but unshakable respect for the human spirit teaches us in a way that no anthropological observor or firey evangelist ever could. This collection will entertain and enlighten all those fortunate enough to get there hands on it. Absolutely enjoyable!

I loved Ola'Wake as it brought me back in time to my own fond memories as a child. While reading with my two daughters, we laughed and cried feeling closer to one another as we related to characters in the story.

B.J. Stone writes with so much feeling and enthusiam she touches each and everyone of us in our hearts. We arelooking forward to her next novel.

Reading this book is like visiting my Aunt Ola in the Ozarks! It's all there...the sounds, the sights, the smells, the adventurous spirit. From the overnight trip up into the mountains, to the rusty milkcan by the cabin door, to the scent of my aunt's perfume and facial powder---this brief novel registers authentic. But its greatest strength is the way it conveys her joy of life, surprisingly, in a book named for her wake. One neat by-product, for young and old, is that this adventure motivates us to think of the meaning of death and life.

B.J. Stone did such a wonderful job keeping the story exciting and ending each chapter with intriguing thoughts that made me want to keep reading. I enjoyed the book so much! I cried and laughed at the descriptions, knowing and seeing and remembering so many things. What a deep-deep, dig into your heart and soul, moving thought B.J.'s ending phrase was! Everybody who reads it will be able to relate. I know I did....

Vance Randolph and Gershon Legman are the Johnson and Boswell, Lewis and Clark and Will and Ariel Durant of coarse and vulgar humor as a literary subject. Randolph's Pissing in the Snow is the standard popular introductory work on the subject, just as Legman's two volume masterpiece No Laughing Matter sets the standard for deeper historical, semantic and psychological consideration of dirty jokes. Here, Randolph and Legman do for the dirty song (or vulgar version of a standard song) what those works did for the dirty joke, namely provide an exposition of the funny material along with a discussion of its historical context, how the information was collected and some comparisons with other similar treasures. As the other reviewer in this thread noted, the irony of this as a subject of serious study is entertaining in and of itself. While this book is a bit pricey, I will vouch that it is worth every penny and might be the finest thing to come out of Arkansas in the 1990's.

When the Univesity of Arkansas Press published this Vance Randolph classic it almost completely made up for giving us Clinton and that admits a lot. This is another portion of Randolph's work on Ozark mountain folklore and generally follows up on his more popular paperback classic Pissing in the Snow. Without saying anything more, this book, although apparently not intended primarily to amuse, is very, very damn funny. It's expensive but worth every penny. No collection of Dirty Jokes as literature can afford to be without it and it deserves the highest recommendation.

I enjoyed this book so much! The irony of an academic study of something usually ignored drew me to the work, but its bawdy and fascinating content kept me reading all the way to the end. I've heard some of the versions of the hymns and bluegrass songs parodied by the Ozarkians interviewed, but some were totally new and entertaining. Read it and you'll be laughing silently every time you hear the "usual" versions of Casey Jones, Frankie and Johnny, At the Cross, Ida Red, and so many others.

Now this is a guidebook, written by Branson "local" Carol Shaffer. Branson's Best Day Trips mixes area history (better than any show!) and photographs with a complete guide to Ozark attractions from shows to inexpensive day trips in the area. After all, the Ozarks do not begin and end on the Strip; Shaffer takes you to surrounding communities, and provides 19 maps and detailed directions clear enough for even the most directionally-impaired traveler! To top it off, Shaffer's writing style is delightful. We highly recommend this book.

We used this book throughout our vacation. The maps were great. Our favorite chapter was the one to Branson's free attractions. We would have missed a lot had it not been for this book and would recommend it to anyone.

Wow, what a great book! I can't believe how much information is in here. Carol obviously knows the area and I think she was able to explain a little of the background behind the different places without becoming a history lesson. I also think the maps are very clear and plenty easy to read and I think the text was well written. I especially like the section on how to navigate the various side-roads (if you've been to Branson you know how bad the traffic can be). I went on vacation to Branson before but only got to see a third of what is in this book - now I can't wait to go back again!

Rarely does an author/illustrator team have a hit right out of the box, and more difficult is to followup up a previous success with another. "Fiddlin Sam" is just that. Written and illustrated by the team that produced "The Worry Stone", this gently written and beautifully illustrated story is a delight for all ages. Once there was a fiddler named Sam who traveled the Ozarks from town to town sharing his music. People said he had a gift. Sam could fiddle away peoples worries, cares, and the aches in their bones. As he grew older, he searched for someone to pass his talent to, for he remembered his father's words, "This ain't a gift son. It's a loan. You gotta pass the music along." How a red-haired boy took up the fiddle and manages to complete Sam's quest results in a delightful tale of bringing happiness to others. The rich watercolor illustrations entice the reader with warm summer evenings, children chasing fireflies and playing "hide and seek," the camaraderie of mountain families and neighbors and the value of passing special gifts to another. "Fiddlin' Sam" is a reminder of the the beauty of the Ozarks and the values of a less hurried America.

It is hard to follow-up with another winner and the same team that created The Worry Stone has done just that. Rich watercolor illustrations entice the reader with warm summer evenings, children chasing fireflies and playing "hide and seek," and the story tells of the camaraderie of mountain families and neighbors and the value of passing special gifts to another. "Fiddlin' Sam" shares the beauty of the Ozarks and reminds us of the values of a less hurried America and will be a story that you will read to your children (and to yourself)over and over again.

Some people would call this a children's book. I say it's a messege in a bottle. In an age of instant messeges, retirement communities and all-day child care, how wonderful to know that Ms. Dengler is out there, gently reminding us that it is the care we take of each other that makes life valueable.People talk a lot about family values these days.But when we forget our heritages, our cultures, our ancestral stories, how can we say what is really precious?A child who learns a passed-on talent isthe wealthiest of us all.The illustrator is intuitive and bold. The author is smart and strong.This is a book to be read at family gatherings, so we all remember how precious our connections truly are.

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.

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.