McLaurin has written a valuable and beautiful book. It deserves a place on the shelf with "Coming of Age in Mississippi" as a document of life in the segregated South and of the moral challenges that segregation presented to those who lived in the system.

McLaurin's book is a touching recollection of growing up in the South during the 1950s. His rich narative describes not only the difficulties all teenagers face, but explores how these difficulties are made even more difficult in a changing environment. While so many imagine the white teenagers of the Little Rock school integration as pictures of young whites during the 1950s, McLaurin paints a picture of a young man sensitive to the plight of blacks in the Jim Crow South. A very good book, highly recommended to those who wish to get a detailed portrait of the 1950s South

Are you wondering what to give someone as a very special gift? THIS is the answer, or Ms Kiefer's other books on Christmas traditions, songs, poems, cartoons, recipes, with super-de-luxe photos that make you remember a visit there or just dream and really enjoy.

As a personal friend of the author I have seen the proofs of this beautiful book which ranks right up there with Ms. Kiefer's "A North Carolina Christmas" A great birthday or Christmas gift for ANYONE

Excellent account and history of one of the greatest bodies of waters in the Carolinas. JM Reynolds takes the reader from the early days of his childhood in the midlands of South Carolina when the great Santee was born up to present day with all the politics and troubles the lakes faces with growth, human encrouchment, and lack of habitat for the Anadidae. It is a down to earth story of one man's life memories upon one of the greatest places to learn the art of waterfowling. Of course, I'm a bit biased as I have also hunted Pine Island Creek "Big Ducks" or the "Bombers" of recent years on Russelville Flats of the "Lower Lake"!

If you've hunted the Santee, this book is a MUST for you but is great reading for any waterfowler or outdoorsman!

Sunrise On The Santee: A Memoir Of Waterfowling In South Carolina by Carolinian duck hunter Julius Reynolds is a picturesque, vivid, emotion inspiring testimony of experiencing what nature has to offer. Set in the splendor of South Carolina, and with an especial reverence for the glory of a brand new dawn, Sunrise on the Santee is a hunter's testament about treasuring life, including one's own life, the life of the natural world around one, and the life of the waterfowl hunted and consumed for sustenance. Of special interest are Reynolds commentaries on the future of waterfowling and the challenges future generations of hunters must deal with to save a rapidly vanishing wetlands environment upon which waterfowl migration depends if they are to return to the Santee. Sunrise On The Santee is highly recommended reading for anyone who has ever sought a true communion with nature.

This book gives a wide variety of all the different spots on a barrier island. we use it in enrichment class and I enjoy the book very much.

This book uses descriptive illustrations to add to the enjoyment of its useful information. Its particularly relevant to the Coastal Carolina region and contains interesting and helpful facts for the beachgoer. Its format serves the single page reader as well as those who enjoy larger portions. Highly Recommended

This will lead you to interesting places that are mostly not well known. The views are stunning. A hiker on the Appalachian Trail said the view from Wayah Bald is the best on the trail. The only problem we had is that road numbers have been changed to names, but most of the numbers were still in fine print on the signs.

This guidebook, unlike most, is so encyclopedic in scope that I give it as a gift to newcomers to the area. It is also an invaluable reference for the visitor who wants to see more than the fabulous Biltmore Estate. Even though I am a native of the area, I learned nearly everything I know about Western North Carolina from this book alone and it is my primary reference. I am still amazed at how much fact, history and folklore [just enough to bring alive the curve of the road, the odd landmark, the abandoned building] is packed in its 300 pages. The author, who must have collapsed from exhaustion when she finished it, takes you on a detailed tour, laid out by the tenth of the mile, of carefully drawn sections of backroads that you can follow leisurely without getting lost. The author is completely absent from the text. The lucid style will please readers who want the facts, not editorial comment. This book, as well as the others in this publisher's backroads series, makes an excellent gift for anyone, especially the many seniors who have relocated, or are considering relocating to this fascinating region. It is also a valuable reference for natives, like me, who didn't know how much they didn't know.

Naomi Williams' novel is a finely crafted piece that expresses all the rich heritage of Southern fiction through the person of a female protagonist that speaks to a universal audience. The novel's protagonist, Liza, will captivate all those who have ever felt constrained by society through her deeply rooted desire to breech boundaries imposed on her from without, and the novel's other characters wrap Liza in a rich quilt of human responses to her passionate personality that will speak to all readers, regardless of their age or their background. Williams' profound style evokes character and place so that we can almost smell the thick Lowcountry mud that borders the banks of the "Two Rivers" that shape Liza's life.

Naomi Williams's first journey into published prose explodes in the first description of the South Carolina lowcountry she has committed to memory and experience. As Williams's young protagonist, Liza Marion Brown, searches feverishly for a violet among the daisies, we are seduced into her lifelong quest for color in an insular world of bland expectations and bleak hopes. Clinging to her mother's legacy of butterbeans and Paul Scarlet roses, Liza uses the past to secure a future of dreams hard-fought, but realized. This imaginative, resourceful protagonist will seduce you down her river and into her heart, revealing family secrets, shattering expectations, and renewing your faith in the endurance and intelligence of the individual. If you live north of the Mason-Dixon line, you need to embrace this new emblem of Southern feminism and lay to rest the beleaguered and banal Scarlett as your symbol of all this region epitomizes. Two Rivers is not only an eye-opener -- it is the breath and soul of the human journey.

I broke my own heart by moving away from the old grandmotherish mountains. But David Yates' Valle Crucis brought it back to me in the Northwest by portraying that mountain community so gorgeously. This is a photographic love story written to Western North Carolina, and also to East Tennesseans (I was one all my life). This book works as a coffee table book, and should be more vastly promoted so that the rest of the world can see what I have always known: Appalachia is the most beautiful region on earth.

We have visited the places written and photographed for this book. The photos are so vivid and realistic. We came across this book in a general store and sat in the rockers enjoying every page.

This is such a useful book it compells a statement. If you visit the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area or North Carolina, or if you live there, this book is an extraordinary guide, written with a sensitivity to place, attractions, events, history, excitement of being there, which makes it a stimulating guide. I have passed places often, but only after I read about them in this book did I see them and experience them. She's done a first-rate job of writing about and explaining an area many people think they already know, but will now realize there is more to learn. Thanks.

"Walking Raleigh/Durham" by Rebecca C Mann is a "must buy as a Christmas present" for friends or family currently living in the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill region. As a former Durham resident, I would have loved to have possessed the history, culture, geography and walking oppotunities supplied by Mann's little book. The maps are clear and well drawn and include specific distances and safety considerations. The local architecture and lore are fun and enlightening, and it all fits into a coat pocket with ease. While I intend to send copies to Durham and Chapel Hill friends who walk for exercise, I'm also sending my 65+ year old parents a copy. With descriptions of museums, parks, and historic sites one passes on different walks, it will give my parents something to do after they've watched poor Carolina lose yet another football game. If you need to give a UNC-CH, NC STate, Duke, or Peace College bound student a high school graduation present they'll really appreciate, this book would be it. Better yet, buy it for their parents, who are much more likely to use it during campus visits to their offspring than are the students themselves, since the latter spend most of their time searching for on campus parking spaces. On my next visit to the Triangle, I'm taking "Walking Raleigh/Durham" along.

This book was excellent! I loved every bit of it and didn't want to put it down from page 1. The struggles of all the women of catawba were so interesting and wonderful to read. Right after finishing it, I picked up the sequel so I could keep reading into the Marston's life. If you see this book, please buy it and the sequel because they are worth every penny!!

When Taylor Craven is forced to leave England for the "New World", everything seems to go wrong. She's even forced to marry a man she doesn't love, but even then God is with her. It is an awesome story about love, faith, and acceptance.

I believe that if it wasn't for this book, we'd have missed some of the best seafood on the Outer Banks this past summer. Fisherman's Wharf, in Wanchese on Roanoke Island, has one of the best selections of fresh seafood on the northern Outer Banks. Along with the restaurant at the Driftwood Motel on Cedar Island. The two and a half hour ferry ride is well worth it. Stay the night in one of the Driftwood's comfortable rooms and ferry back across in the morning. Great sightseeing guide.