What a thrill. Although Mel graduated from Lane ten yearsbefore me, I enjoyed his book immensely. Some of that thrill wasbecause I grew up six blocks west of where Mel did. He mentions manyfamiliar landmarks: Hamlin Park, swimming at the Belmont Rocks, local movie theaters, the Lindberg Beacon atop the Palmolive Building, Lincoln Park Zoo, the Lincoln-Belmont YMCA, and of course, Riverview Park and the roller rink. I, as he, used to listen to Randy Blake on WJJD, and rode the Green Hornet streetcars. Much of the book is dedicated to Lane Tech. I thought I was reading about myself, as Mel took me to Riesz's and McGovern's stores. As a "freshie" he learns as all of us did, about the sacred campus lawn, being subjected to a penny attack, how the room numbering can get you lost, and a trip to the discipline office. He uses terminology which was part of our experience at Lane such as: socials, course book, rovers, division rooms, and of course, the Myrtle and the Gold! Thanks, Mel! I recommend his book for all alumni who would like to take a walk down memory Lane (Tech).

"George Street, Our Street" is not a book, it's a time machine. It took me back through the 30's, 40's, and 50's. By page 39, along with sneaking peeks further on, I was traumatized. I couldn't talk around the lump in my throat ... I walked through old neighborhoods, I walked the halls of Lane, I went to the "Fog Bowl" football game at Soldier Field with Mt. Carmel. I froze, once again, watching Lane's football team beat Fenwick. I was back at the corner of Damen and Diversey selling newspapers again. What a trip! Quite a trip. I would urge all Laneites from all classes, past, present, and future to read this book. Those from the 40's and 50's will be instantly trans- ported back to those times. The alumni from the 30's and before will very much identify with it. All others who came after will have purchased a window to the past and will more fully understand: "Wherever you go, what ever you do, remember the honor of Lane". David V. Radcliffe, Lane Tech Class of January,1950

Set in Chicago from the Depression-era to the early 50s, this emotion-laden book chronicles the maturing of a young boy and his brothers, all born in Texas and whisked to Chicago by their courageous mother to escape an abusive father. With remarkable attention to detail, it captures the intense, profound love this family shared, as well as the pain they endured living "on the wrong side of the tracks". It sends a strong reminder that the most important things in life do not have a price tag.

I carry this book with me whenever I go into the U.P. I like to photograph the waterfalls of Michigan and this guide is constant travel companion. The book gives clear directions on how to get to each of the falls. The falls are broken down into the corresponding counties. Not only is this a unique guide it is a comprehensive guide to Michigan falls. The only minor enhancement that could be made to the book to make it even better is more photographs of the falls. However, the bit of mystery of what the falls will look also is a good motivation for exploring more and more. There are more to Michigan falls than Tahquamenon. I highly recommend Bond Falls. This book is the bible to exploring the falls.

I highly recommend this to anyone who's interested in waterfalls. The photography is very nice and the directions are clear and concise. My family and I visited twenty-four waterfalls so far this summer/fall in the Marquette area using this book.

We recently took a vacation to the upper peninsula. On our way up there we stopped by a friends home who gave us the guide. We met the folks we were staying with in Munising,they said they loved to explore waterfalls, but were unable to find many just going on the directions from the locals. With this guide we were able to easily locate many falls, the directions are right on, down to the tenth of a mile. I would heartily recommend this guide to anyone wanting to explore Michigan's Waterfalls. We are buying this guide for our friends so that they can explore and know exactly where to find the falls.

Alas, the book 'Indiana Legends: Famous Hoosiers from Johnny Appleseed to David Letterman' does not offer a definitive answer to this article's title question: What is the definition of a Hoosier? Kevin Kline's recent film 'In and Out', set in the not-so-mythical Greenleaf, Indiana, had a scene near the conclusion where the teacher of the year was trying to deliver a speech with the same title, only to get interrupted before giving the answer. Perhaps the answer contained in this book is not so much a dictionary-style answer, but rather the collective experience of people such as those represented in this book.

The author, Nelson Price, has been a reporter for the Indianapolis Star and News newspapers, the state's largest papers, for over 15 years. Born in Indianapolis, educated at Indiana University, he is a fifth generation Hoosier; his great-great-grandfather arrived in the state just about the time of Indiana achieving statehood. Thus, if anyone has background qualification for producing such a text as this, it would be Price.

Indiana is well represented in the history of the American nation. Three presidents: William Henry Harrison, his grandson Benjamin Harrison were Hoosiers, and Abraham Lincoln claimed substantial Hoosier influence in his backgrounds. Other historical figures in the country's political and historical development include John Chapman (Johnny Appleseed), George Rogers Clark, Tecumseh, Frances Slocum, Robert Owen, Eugene V. Debs, Wendell Willkie, and Dan Quayle (eek!). Indiana has in fact had five vice presidents, including Schuyler Colfax and Thomas Marshall.

Little known fact: Reggie Miller and Jane Pauley were both diagnosed with ailments in their childhoods that would have ruled out most any productive role in adult life, Pauley with nervous disorders, and Miller with a crippling childhood disease.

Hoosiers in Hollywood and the performing arts include Cole Porter, Hoagy Carmichael, James Dean, Steve McQueen, Anne Baxter, Karl Malden, Clifton Webb, Red Skelton, Carole Lombard, John Mellencamp, Florence Henderson, David Letterman, Michael Jackson, Crystal Gayle, Shelley Long, Joshua Bell and Twyla Tharp. Writers and artists include Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Robert Indiana (could have guessed that, right?), Jim Davis (of Garfield fame), T.C. Steele, James Whitcomb Riley, Booth Tarkington, and Theodore Dreiser.

Famous business people have included Madame Walker (the first self-made black millionaire), Eli Lilly, the Studebaker family (yes, the cars), the Ball brothers, and J. Irwin Miller, all known not only for their entrepreneurial spirit, but also their philanthropic drive. The Lilly Endowment is one of the largest in the world today.

Little known fact: 'Go West, Young Man!' is a phrase coined by an Indiana newspaper reporter.

Indiana is also the state of Ryan White, the child AIDS activist whose name became familiar all over the world. It is home Sandi Patty, the gospel singer, and Jane Pauley, the television journalist. It is the birthplace of the fashion designer Bill Blass and the childhood home of Halston. It is the home of sex research Alfred Kinsey and the gangster John Dillinger. It is the home of journalist Ernie Pyle and publisher Eugene Pulliam. It is the birthplace of high flyers Orville and Wilbur Wright (now, there aren't too many states in the nation where a family would have both an Orville and a Wilbur, don't you know...)

Indiana wouldn't be Indiana without sports, particularly basketball, and boasts such legends as Larry Bird, Bob Knight, Oscar Robertson, George McGinnis, and Bobby Plump. Racing goes without saying, too, in Indiana, and the names such as Bettenhausen, Andretti, and Gordon are legendary in the sport. Mark Spitz, Kurt Thomas, Doc Counsilman, Jaycie Phelps, Don Mattingly, and Knute Rockne are other well-known names in the sporting world.

Little known fact: Carl Fisher, the founder of the Indianapolis 500, took his fortune to found Miami Beach, Florida, where he died penniless.

So, you now have a perhaps overblown sense of who comes from Indiana. So what?

Perhaps the best thing about this book is to give a sense of pride of place to native Hoosiers. I am a firm believer that knowing one's personal history is very important, and this includes a sense of the place where one is born and raised. There is, among my acquaintances who have come from elsewhere in the world to live here, a decided reluctance to admit the term 'Hoosier' applies to themselves. For the longest time, I thought that no one actually comes from Indiana, or that perhaps Indiana is a good place to be from, but not a quality to be valued. Nelson Price's book is somewhat of a revelation in that sense, in that it shows the great diversity of persons in a wide range of human endeavours who were born in or had significant residence in Indiana. Once, Steve Martin made a comment describing a place as 'nowhere, USA', and he picked a town in Indiana. Perhaps Indiana is somewhat distant from the 'centre of all things', be that New York, Los Angeles, London, wherever one might choose. However, perhaps its critics are a bit too harsh on the state, and the history of this relatively small place needs to be re-examined, not least by those who reside here.

Little known fact: William Henry Harrison built a plantation as a Governor's Residence in Indiana, and called it Grouseland.

The Hoosier state is richer in history than might at first meet the eye. Nelson Price's book puts in small, journalistic-style stories, accessible narratives of the people who make up this history, past and present. This would make a great gift to anyone who lives in Indiana, who is moving to Indiana, or has a significant Indiana experience in the past.

Little known fact: A large number of astronauts have come from Indiana, and those who were not Hoosier natives often have a Hoosier connection - education from Purdue University, renowned for engineering.

This is a coffee-table book. Wonderful pictures of people past and present, good print production and nice formatting make this a pleasant volume to read.

This book is the most exhaustive study of Indiana natives available today. Written in the same conversation style that he uses in his newspaper column, Nelson Price relates the "rise to fame and fortune" stories of many familiar personalities. And to receive such a terrific hardcover book for this price is almost criminal. Everyone should buy a copy today!

I was thoroughly entertained and captured by this book. Furthermore, I was thrilled to receive such a large and handsome hardcover book. Everyone should give a copy to every Hoosier they know!

As a local, who takes the city for granted and continually revisits the old haunts, I am enormously grateful for this comprehensive insight into what MY city has to offer.
Katie has sparked the "adventurous" in me and now I am ready to hit the road. This is a book meant for every local's library not to mention all visitors to the city. Most of us are unaware of the myrid options that Kansas City offers. This guide gives us the opportunity to explore and enjoy everything that is available. We are also prepared when, when they come, to enlighten visitors as to everything that Kansas City is about.
Thank you Katie for making all of us who have the book "insiders." The book is a must.

Kansas City Magazine's review from December 2002 issue: Stumped for something interesting to do around the metro? Get a copy of the "Insiders' Guide to Kansas City" and you'll be out of your house or hotel room in no time.

This comprehensive guide has something for everybody whether your interest is music, art, sports, restaurants or casinos.

"Insiders Guide to Kansas City" offers travelers, newcomers and locals the best, most comprehensive information on what's happening in the "City of Fountains" as well as the surrounding areas. Sample world-famous barbecue, dance the night away at a hot spot, or take the kids to Science City. Everything you ever wanted to know about Kansas City is at your fingertips.

I moved to New York City over 7 years ago - I grew up in Overland Park, Kansas.

Now when I go back home, I don't know the best places to go - plus my tastes have changed. This guide book is so classy, chic, and full of new adventures for me as a former Kansas City girl! And it's tough to compete with NYC.

Thanks for the insight, Katie, and for making me feel at home!

Writing from a narrative center somewhere between Mark Twain and Garrison Keillor, author Roger Welsch memorializes the town and inhabitants of Centralia (aka Dannebrog, pop. 356), Nebraska, in what he calls "Bleaker County." Centralia itself is either the center of this windswept prairie state or the center of the universe, depending on who you ask in this small town. It's located not far north of the Platte River and its farmlands, and not far south of the Sandhills, with its population of cattle and cowboys. Life in Centralia gravitates toward the Town Tavern, where many of these story-essays take place, and we meet Welsch's fictionalized friends and neighbors: Lunchbox, Goose, Slick, Woodrow, and Cece -- the regulars. There are also his wife Lily, daughter Jenny, an Indian friend Cal, a kind-hearted bachelor uncle named Grover Bass, a film crew from public television in Lincoln, a mean cuss named Royal Cupp, a rip-tearing adventurer, Luke Bigelow, and many others.

Welsch has an appreciation for the quirky, cock-eyed, and audacious. Like an endlessly curious anthropologist, he's equally fascinated by the everyday and the out-of-the-ordinary. He's a humanist, romanticizing his characters even while he's treating them with tongue-in-cheek irony. He's also willing to show that they can stoop to the unforgivable, or that they do not share his appreciation for people from other ethnic backgrounds. There is a range of tones and sentiments in the book, from comic farce to tenderness and awe. My favorite essay, "Racing Horses at the Centralia Fourth of July," ranges across all three, as his young teenage daughter teams up with a burly cowboy to take second place in a relay race. I laughed and had tears in my eyes by the end.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and happily recommend it to anyone with an interest in small town life on the Plains. As a companion volume, I'd suggest the short stories of life in a rural Minnesota community in Kent Meyers' "Light in the Crossing."

This is life and this is fun! Beautiful pictures of Great Plain - Small Village life written -so well!- by an expert.

In "It's Not the End of the Earth,..", Roger Welsch does an excellent job bringing out the humor of small town life by simply telling stories about his friends in Centralia, NE. He has a witty way of giving value to each of the members of this rural community bringing to light the peculiar habits and expressions that make them all unique, interesting, and memorable. I applaud Prof. Welsch's folkloric expose' of the kinds of everyday things that I used to laugh about with my dad - some of my favorite things.

This is one of my most looked-at atlases out of the 15 or so that I own. I don't live in Missouri, but I have gone there on vacation a few times. It has come in very handy when I try to find some nice attractions around where I'm headed. And that's the reason I like it. Its gazetteer section is excellent! It includes: attractions, historic sites, hiking trails, mountain biking trails, unique natural features and more. With all of these activities to choose from it is easy to plan a trip using nothing more than this atlas!

The MO atlas is at 1:200,000 scale (the scale Delorme uses for nearly all their west-of-Mississippi maps). It is printed in the "type-B", as I call it, format. This is Delorme's more modern map style: larger font, different colored roads, and slightly overlapping topo maps. It has contour intervals at 120 ft, and is shaded relief for better perspective on topography.

Overall, if you live in Missouri or are going to visit Missouri you WILL want this atlas, so PICK IT UP!

Once again, Delorme atlases are the best way to go! I got the Missouri atlas soon after moving to Kansas City from Georgia. With this atlas, I have navigated many back roads and discovered some really neat areas in my backyard that I may not have discovered otherwise. These atlases are very easy to use and well thought out. If you can read a basic map, it's not too much of a jump to use one of these atlases. The amount of detail is amazing and really gives you the confidence to strike out on a dirt road you've never been on previously. Highly recommended!!

I'm planning on going to a family reunion for the first time. After getting this altas, I wish I had more time to explore all the neat places listed... I'm just going to have to visit Missouri again, and again...

Quotes from articles:

"..part practical...part humorous" Andrew Herrmann, Chicago Sun-Times

"The book is a comprehensive tour of information about historic forts, sprawling homes, old churches, forgotten cemeteries ice cream parlors, country clubs, biking, fishing, horseback riding, even accordion sing-a-longs" Charles J. Shields, The Star

"It is a true insiders' look at 'that stretch of land past I-55', written in an often witty, always eclectic style." Joanne Zerkel, The Star

"Book destroys myth of cultural-less South Suburbs" Terry Loncaric, The Star

"...informal and informative" Dan Pearson, Daily Southtown

Also received wonderful write-ups/discussions from The Joliet Herald, The Lincoln-Way Sun and the Spike O'Dell show on WGN AM Radio.

This is a pretty neat book with a lot of interesting facts. It's cool that someone put out a book about our area. It was fun to read too. The authors are smart-alexs. If you're from the area, I'd say snag a copy.

The authors take a lighthearted view of Chicago's South suburbs. The book is not only a great guide to what's happening in the era, but gives the reader a tongue-in-cheek peek tour, complete with insider details. A must read for new area residents!

I loved this book as I did her first. I relate well with her lifestyle, for it is mine too. I worship the solitude living alone can give me. I can laugh along with Amy as she battles the Wasps and spiders. I can share her fun at being able to walk "nekked" in the house whenever needed and in the fact we are not bound by someone elses rules. Noone can tell us how or when the house should be clean. Ms Blackmarr is my hero :-)

The last time we saw Amy Blackmarr (in the fine "Going to Ground: Simple Life on a Georgia Pond"), she had been forced to give up her pondering on the pond and was headed to the North Georgia mountains. However, she somehow got derailed and wound up in a peculiar little house in Kansas. No problem, in her newest work, "House of Steps: Finding the Path Home," she still finds plenty of adventures to share with us, including some from her past life. And her reflections on life, love, family and nature are as sharp as ever. As she did on the pond, Amy still finds snakes and other interesting creatures to deal with, and some of the people are pretty wild too. She even wins the battle of the mailbox, sort of. Either of her books is just the right length for a trip to the beach, or a few hours in the backyard. One more thought: If you like these books, you should also try "Ecology of a Cracker Childhood" by Janisse Ray, another South Georgia woman with a heart for nature.

While Blackmarr's first book was about having the courage to follow your dream, this book seemed to be about your dream later taking you to a place where you didn't really expect or want to go--in her case, back to Kansas--and drawing what meaning you can out of it. But Blackmarr has such an incredible knack for finding meaning in just everyday experiences, what she calls "the remarkable and incorruptible process of living from ordinary day to ordinary day." This book worked on many levels for me. It's hilariously funny sometimes, has some great characters, like the stove man and the wasp lady, but it's also intensely spiritual. It has a zen-like acuteness to it. Yet it's a fast, easy reade. There's a great deal in a small space, here.

I spent two full years trying to learn MI trout waters. Put 22,000 miles the first year on my new 4x4 (in 1989). I just wish this book had been out then. Would have saved me months of time, hundreds of dollars, and I would have had a LOT more fun and caught LOTS more fish. There are more secrets in this book than in all the others in the series combined. Sure would love to spend just one day on/in the water with these guys.

This book is an excellent compilation of information about Michigan's best rivers and streams. It is a wonderful book whether you are a beginning angler or an expert. The authors went to all of these rivers and fished and talked to locals and even checked out some other events in the area of each river. Highly recomended!

This book is nearly all home runs. The descriptions are accurate and helpful. It's especially useful if you're tired of fishing the same "great" rivers (Ausable, PM, Manistee, etc) and getting skunked in a crowded, overfished venue. They'll show you dozens of locations most people have never considered that produce some very productive fishing. I've used this guide for the past two years and have never been disappointed. Hint: Look for the phrase "One of our favorite . . ." The authors really went to these places and really fished these streams so it's not like most of the guide books that are just warmed-over comments from 10-20 years ago.

I REALLY LIKED THIS BOOK.ALLISON GAYLORD A.K.A THE VIRUS CREATED HAVOC.I WAS HAPPY TO SEE ALLISON SCAMED AT HER OWN TRICK.I HOPE THINGS WORK OUT FOR MOLLY,HER SWEET DAD,AND HER OVERPROTECTIVE MOM.I ALSO WONDER IF THINGS WILL ACTUALLY WORK OUT WITH DEAN AND KATIE FROM THE SOUTHERN PAGEANT.AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST WHO WILL WIN THE NATIONAL PAGEANT?

I was amazed when I found out what was going on with Pepper, but it was cool because that really happens and people could realate to it.If you want to find out what is going on with Pepper you have to read the book.

This book rocks! What is going to happen with Molly, her mom and dad? And what about Justin and Sarah; are they ever gonna be in contact with each other? And Pepper--what's going to happen with her and Matt? Is Shylo going to steal the crown from her half-sister, Shelby? Read it to find out!~