Dragonwell Dead: A Tea Shop Mystery

Dragonwell Dead: A Tea Shop Mystery
Average customer rating:

Excellent

the charm of historic Charleston

Dragonwell Dead is Nearly Dead On!

Theodesia narrows the focus - and finds herself the next target in this absorbing, fun mystery.

Arrmchair travelers invited to Charleston, SC.

Dragonwell Dead: A Tea Shop Mystery
Laura Childs
Manufacturer: Berkley Hardcover
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0425213862

Book Description

It's springtime in Charleston and just about every species of South Carolina's flora is in full and glorious bloom at the Spring Plantation Ramble. Once a year, the upper crust open their sprawling gardens to the public, the site of flower shows, rare plant auctions, and a contagious spring fever. Although Theodosia Browning barely knows a Phalinopsis from a Bog Rose, she still enjoys the Ramble, especially since she can pour tea and promote her Indigo Tea Shop-and her latest concoction, Dragonwell Sweet Tea.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent.......2007-07-03

Laura Childs does it again. I love her tea time series. This one provides the mystery and suspense, as expected, mingled with a lovely amount of tea room interaction. The whole series is worth the read. I can't say any one is better than the other. Enjoy!

the charm of historic Charleston.......2007-06-29

The eighth book in a series called The Tea Shop Mysteries. Like the others, it is set in a charming tea shop in the beautiful historic district of Charleston, South Carolina run by the very likable Theodosia Browning. This one involves poisoned tea (something unfortunately already used in this series), rare orchids, charity fund raising, and international finance. I read this series for the charm and atmosphere of both the tea shop, and of Charleston, and both are fully present.

This is very nice series of very "cozy" mysteries. I love to read them in my big easy chair with a cup of tea. ;-)

Dragonwell Dead is Nearly Dead On! .......2007-05-30

I have been a fan of the tea shop series since the first book hit stores. I stumbled on them quite by chance - but now - several years later - I can't wait for the next installment each time I finish a book!

Dragonwell Dead was, in my opinion, a more solid mystery than its predecessor, Blood Orange Brewing. No question - I enjoyed both books just due to the wonderful, fun characters and colorful descriptions of Charleston - but Dragonwell Dead is closer in tone and feel to the first books in the series. The mystery seems more clever - and the ending ties together much better.

Laura Childs offers a wonderful respite for tea and mystery lovers in her warm and charming series. The characters in the books feel like old friends - and each time, I just can't wait to hear more about them!

The one and only thing that bothered me (simply as a fan of the series) about Dragonwell Dead was the lack of interaction with detective Burt Tidwell. I have grown to like Theodosia's constant sparring with Det. Tidwell - and, to me at least, the local sheriff was not nearly as interesting as our good detective would have been. As well - although all of the major players were back for this book (except Tidwell, who made only a minor appearance), I missed hearing about Theo's therapy dog and pet, Earl Grey.

All this in stride - the book is a good, solid read and contains most of the great characters that we've come to know and love, plus some wonderful new mouth-watering recipes as well!

Does anyone know when the next book - The Silver Needle Murder - will be out? I can't stand the wait!

Karen

Theodesia narrows the focus - and finds herself the next target in this absorbing, fun mystery........2007-05-19

Fans of Laura Child's previous 'Charleston Tea Shop' mysteries will find another satisfying culinary mystery in DRAGONWELL DEAD, the latest installment, which continues to tradition of serving up recipes and tea time tips within the context of a riveting mystery story. Here Charleston's annual Spring Plantation Ramble finds Theodesia serving tea on a lovely plantation when the collapse of a nearby b&b owner leads to her investigation of murder. Theodesia narrows the focus - and finds herself the next target in this absorbing, fun mystery.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Arrmchair travelers invited to Charleston, SC. .......2007-05-14

This series is set in Charleston, SC where the protagonist struggles to be refined at the same time as earning a living operating an upmarket tea shop in the historic district. All aspects of the story are well done; the characters are well-developed and fairly attractive, the description of one of the most interesting US cities is evocative, the mystery is fairly well plotted and developed and you really feel you are traveling right along with the protagonist at she sets about solving yet another nasty challenge to her friends, location and lifestyle.

Charleston, South Carolina: A Photographic Portrait

Average customer rating:

Very Good Book
Historic Charleston
Charleston, South Carolina: A (Beautiful) Photographic Portrait...

Charleston, South Carolina: A Photographic Portrait
Editors of Yourtown Books
Manufacturer: Yourtown Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Complete Charleston 2007-2008: A Guide to the Architecture, History, Gardens and Food
The Lowcountry: From Charleston to Savannah
Savannah, Georgia: A Photographic Portrait
Very Charleston: A Celebration of History, Culture, and Lowcountry Charm
Private Gardens Of Charleston, The

ASIN: 1885435355

Book Description

This full-color photographic portrait paints a picture of one of America's most genteel cities, Charleston. Steeped in history, bathed in southern Atlanitc breezes, and touched with a unique blend of Southern culture and hospitality, these photos reveal the life of a quintessentially southern American city.

Customer Reviews:

Very Good Book.......2007-05-14

This is a very good book to show Charleston. We had a business meeting with members from all over the world and we gave each of them a copy of this book. They really liked it. It has great pictures of the area. I usually like to have alittle bit mmore of hte history shared in a book. This one does share a little but there are others out there that share more of the history of Charleston also in pictures. But this is a great book of present day Charleston and pictures to share.

Historic Charleston.......2007-01-10

Historic Charleston is a place everyone should visit. We've been there several times and this book depicts the majesty of Charleston. I was so pleased with this book, I ordered a copy for my best friend and included it in her 'trip kit' for Christmas. Order your copy and plan to visit Charleston. Savannah isn't far away, so why not see both places. Another tip....the BEST LITTLE MAPS from Navigator Maps are purrrfect; they are very inexpensive and soooo helpful. Have a great trip!

Charleston, South Carolina: A (Beautiful) Photographic Portrait..........2006-02-26

Through the pages of this book one can revisit one of the South's lovliest and friendliest cities...

Average customer rating:

MUST READ
Courtesy of Teens Read Too
astonishing
I Cried for Her Loss in Innocence
Awesome Read!!!

Copper Sun
Sharon M. Draper
Manufacturer: Atheneum
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0689821816

Book Description

When pale strangers enter fifteen-year-old Amari's village, her entire tribe welcomes them; for in her remote part of Africa, visitors are always a cause for celebration. But these strangers are not here to celebrate. They are here to capture the strongest, healthiest villagers and to murder the rest. They are slave traders. And in the time it takes a gun to fire, Amari's life as she's known it is destroyed, along with her family and village.

Beaten, branded, and dragged onto a slave ship, Amari is forced to witness horrors worse than any nightmare and endure humiliations she had never thought possible -- including being sold to a plantation owner in the Carolinas who gives her to his sixteen-year-old son, Clay, as his birthday present.

Now, survival and escape are all Amari dreams about. As she struggles to hold on to her memories in the face of backbreaking plantation work and daily degradation at the hands of Clay, she finds friendship in unexpected places. Polly, an outspoken indentured white girl, proves not to be as hateful as she'd first seemed upon Amari's arrival, and the plantation owner's wife, despite her trappings of luxury and demons of her own, is kind to Amari. But these small comforts can't relieve Amari's feelings of hopelessness and despair, and when an opportunity to escape presents itself, Amari and Polly decide to work together to find the thing they both want most...freedom.

Grand and sweeping in scope, detailed and penetrating in its look at the complicated interrelationships of those who live together on a plantation, Copper Sun is an unflinching and unforgettable look at the African slave trade and slavery in America.

Customer Reviews:

MUST READ.......2007-08-13

This book has something for everyone. There is a lot of suspense and drama and I highly suggest this read to all. It's a hard cover and may seem like a big book if you don't like to ready much but I promise you will want to keep reading.

Courtesy of Teens Read Too.......2007-08-10

I have been a fan of Sharon M. Draper for some time. She is a master at writing realistic fiction. COPPER SUN is her first historical fiction and it is amazing -- as well as frighteningly authentic.

This book follows the trials and tribulations of Amari, a fifteen-year-old African maiden. After witnessing the slaughter of both the old and young in her African village, including her parents and her young brother, she is chained, by feet, hands, and neck, lined up, and herded miles on foot to the ocean by pale skinned visitors with fire sticks. She watches her fellow Africans suffer incomprehensible humiliation and death at the hands of their captors as they are shipped like animal cargo across the ocean. The life that awaits her is nothing like she could have ever imagined.

Amari must adapt to life as a purchased slave on a rice plantation, a life that includes atrocities committed upon her by her white owners. She meets Polly, an indentured servant who has dreams of making it to the big house and being a fine lady of standing. Instead, Polly lives in the slave quarters and finds she's given the chore of civilizing Amari, now called Myna, and teaching her enough English to work. After witnessing murder, the two girls find themselves thrown together in a desperate run for freedom.

This is not just another book about slavery. This is a book about something real and tangible. Ms. Draper's writing is so vivid that you can smell the rank odors beneath ship. You can feel the pain of being lashed with a whip. Your throat will constrict at the heart-wrenching pain of a mother and child being forced apart. You will also celebrate the strength and spirit of Amari and those she inspires.

COPPER SUN won the Coretta Scott King Award. This is a book I will make sure goes on my classroom shelves. I give COPPER SUN a gold star!

Reviewed by: Cana Rensberger

astonishing.......2007-08-09

the best book i have read in YEARS. Copper Sun is a tearjerker and a heartwrencher opening your eyes to what life must have felt like during slavery and the things you take for granted. You just want to crawl into the book and rescue Amarie and take care of her.
The book is about Amaries's love of life, family, even the boy that she is "forced" to marry. Until the day a bunch of strangers come into their village and turn not just hers but all the villagers lives around. She is sold to men and forced into slavery, but along the way she finds friendship and learns more about the way the world fuctions.
I could not put this book down and finished it in one day. Sharon Draper is an amazing woman with a big heart (my niece won a contest at school and was picked to have dinner with her), and also an amazing writer. I am going to purchase all of her books and i cant wait to "sit down with her again"

I Cried for Her Loss in Innocence.......2007-06-13

Powerful, life-changing, and a must read, "Copper Sun" gives a vicarious account of what life must have been like during the slave era.
For Amari, her life in Africa was peaceful and happy until she was kidnapped to be sold as a slave. Upon arriving in America, she was bought as a "birthday present" for the plantations sixteen year old son--what an OUTRAGE! She begins life on the plantation helping cook, among her "duties" for Clay. "Copper Sun" gives insight to the hardships that all slaves endured and this books accounts are heart-wrenching.
This story will keep your adrenaline flowing, at times your eyes crying, and renew your belief in the power of the human spirit--I couldn't put it down--I read it from cover to cover.
Sharon Draper has become my "new" favorite author.

Awesome Read!!!.......2007-02-01

THIS IS A MUST READ!!! Mrs. Draper has true writing skills that worked magic throughout this book. This book is classified for young adults but everyone should read it young and old alike. Mrs. Draper takes you from the very beginning with Amari playing with her brother in Africa, to being captured at the hands of her own neighboring tribe. From the horrible boat ride to America, (in vivid detail) to Amari being sold to a plantation owner for his son's sixteenth birthday present. Amari is left in the hands of a white indentured servant girl about her age to be made "civilized." You will have to read it for yourself to see what happens from here, you will not be disappointed! I was full of so many emotions, happy, sad, angry, I found myself ranting aloud a couple of times. This book is not predictable by far; I found it hard to put down. I rarely take books to work with me in fear of reading them and I just could not leave this book at home! This book offered me knowledge and understanding and for that I am grateful.

Continued success to you Mrs. Draper.

Average customer rating:

MUST READ
Sweet & Endearing ....
A Lyrical Tale of Reconciliation and Redemption Set in the South
Sweetgrass
Simple country life and lessons to be learned.

Sweetgrass (Mira Hardbacks)
Mary Alice Monroe
Manufacturer: Mira
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0778321878

Book Description

"Mary Alice Monroe is helping to redefine the beauty and magic of the Carolina Lowcountry. Every book she has written has felt like a homecoming to me." - Pat Conroy, author of The Prince of Tides and Beach Music

Customer Reviews:

MUST READ.......2007-07-17

ANOTHER WONDERFUL BOOK FROM MARY ALICE MONROE! I HOPE SHE KEEPS THEM COMING.
ENDEARING,MAKES YOU FEEL LIKE YOU REALLY KNOW THE PEOPLE.

Sweet & Endearing ...........2007-07-06

I must be on a Southern Lit kick because I read this one in one day ~~ since it was too hot to be outside, it seems logical to sit and read a book ... which is what I did. I found this book in a rummage sale also and since I have read one of her earlier works, I've been searching for more of her titles. I found this one and didn't regret it. It is the perfect summer read!

This novel is based on a family riddled with secrets that continued to haunt them to the present. There's Mama June, there's her husband, Preston, who was befelled by a horrible stroke. There's Nan, their daughter, married to an ambitious businessman, and mom to two teenage sons. There's Morgan, the prodigal son, home from Montana where he had lived for ten years, fighting to preserve the bison there. They all come back together when Preston had a severe stroke. The story weaves between past and present, with other characters involved, like Nona, the housekeeper/cook whose family has strong and long ties with the Blakely family over the centuries. She is also a sweetgrass basket weaver. There's Kristina, the therapist who became very involved with the entire family and there's Adele, Preston's sister, who wants nothing more than to get rid of Sweetgrass and all it holds.

This book is about family relationships, love and death, and rediscovering love all over again ~~ going back into memory lane and fighting for what is important. It is an endearing book. It is sweet and sentimental. It will keep you thumbing through the pages to find out how it ends (even if it is more predictable than you expected ... but all ends well is a happy novel, right?), and it's the perfect summer read ~~ so if you're going to the beach or to the lake or even to the pool, be sure to grab a copy of this novel. It's perfect for the plane ride too ~~ so kick back with a glass of iced tea and enjoy!

7-6-07

A Lyrical Tale of Reconciliation and Redemption Set in the South.......2007-03-30

In a small southern town, a family must fight against rising taxes, encroaching developers, devastating illness and their own demons to face themselves - and each other - and find long-needed forgiveness.

Acclaimed bestselling author Mary Alice Monroe ("Skyward," "The Beach House"), an active conservationist, also weaves into her tender plot and deftly-drawn characters a gentle message about preservation. A lyrical tale of reconciliation and redemption, set against the backdrop of South Carolina's lowcountry.

Sweetgrass.......2007-01-05

Interesting information about making sweetgrass baskets in South Carolina was beautifully woven into the storyline of this book. Anyone who visits Charleston after reading this book would look for the open-air market where the baskets are woven and sold. Excellent,easy to read low-country story in the author's style.

Simple country life and lessons to be learned........2006-09-05

Excellent beach read ! This is one book you do not want to put down. Lessons learned in life, love and racism. Writer brought characters and images to life. Reading this on the beach IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, you will see why.......

North Carolina Atlas & Gazetteer (North Carolina Atlas and Gazetteer)

Average customer rating:

Delorme Quality with a lot of versatility
anonymous
North Carolina Atlas & Gazetteer (North Carolina Atlas and Gazetteer)
NC Gazetteer
Very good but a couple complaints

North Carolina Atlas & Gazetteer (North Carolina Atlas and Gazetteer)

Manufacturer: Delorme Mapping Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Virginia Atlas & Gazetteer (Virginia Atlas & Gazeteer)

ASIN: 0899332773
Release Date: 2006-06-01

Product Description

EVERYTHING you ever wanted to know about a State! These Atlas & Gazetteer Books give you detailed geographical information, GPS grids, complete travelways for fishing and hunting areas (indexed by type of game), hiking, canoeing... even seaplane routes, for Pete's sake! Large 11 x 15 1/2" soft cover books, most topographical (see below). Select State, as available in the Shopping Cart below. *Note- Florida, Maine, Michigan and Ohio are Non-topographical maps (elevations not shown) but with same information otherwise. Atlas & Gazetteer

Customer Reviews:

Delorme Quality with a lot of versatility.......2007-08-01

These are one stop maps. Just about anything you need to know to navigate an area on foot, motorcycle or car is on easy to read pages, provided you are not overwhelmed by details normally found on Topographic maps. If you are looking for a road atlas, buy one and leave these to those looking for a little more detail. Plenty of other useful info included such as park information, camping, fishing piers, boat ramps etc. The info varies by Gazetteer.

anonymous.......2007-06-27

Delorme produces an excellent resource. If you need very specific detailed pages, you'll also need a Thomas Guide.

North Carolina Atlas & Gazetteer (North Carolina Atlas and Gazetteer).......2007-06-01

Bought in order to better plan my bike trips. Was disappointed to find numerous errors (2006 Edition) in street names of some main roads in my area and that the scale (1:500,000) does not allow for much detail. It does not suite my purpose and have few alternatives given we live off the usual city maps coverage. Will use it for car trips but the lack of detail and errors leaves me doubtful of its usefulness for leisure activities.

NC Gazetteer.......2007-01-04

I bought this atlas and gazetteer for my mother who loves to travel in books. She had heard about it on a travel program and wanted one. She has thoroughly enjoyed it and has found a lot of places in NC that she had heard about and would like to visit one day. She had never heard of it before but it was exactly what she was looking for.

Very good but a couple complaints.......2006-09-25

This highly detailed map is an invaluable reference but its size and layout make it cumbersome to refer to on the go. Also there's no overlap from one page to the next. If your route is in the middle of the page, you're in luck! But going from Asheville to neighboring Black Mountain requires flipping among 4 different pages.

Average customer rating:

Excellent characterization!
This is the first novel of the Charleston Trilogy
Charming character driven story
deep character study

The Backup Plan
Sherryl Woods
Manufacturer: Mira
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0778321495

Customer Reviews:

Excellent characterization!.......2006-08-29

I love books that are set in the Carolina Low Country (ie: Dorothea Benton Frank and Anne Rivers Siddons)becuae it seems like such a gloriously stylish place to live!!!

This was an interesting story about a high-power career woman suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, who returns home to heal. When the safety net she intended to fall back on doesn't come through for her, she finds a truer path towards healing, which includes a passionate relationship that's as strong as the passion she once held for her work.

I particularly admired the therapist in this story, and how the psychotherapy sessions were really very helpful and healing. I also found the vivid details of Cord and Bobby's work, restoring antebellum homes and historical landmarks to their original splendour, added significant color and depth to the storyline.

This is the first novel of the Charleston Trilogy.......2006-01-03

`Backup Plan' by Sherryl Woods is fun southern romance novel. Dinah Davis returns home after working in Afghanistan. She decides to take a break and look up her old boyfriend Bobby - her official backup plan. Instead of Bobby, she finds Cord the older and annoying brother to Bobby. This novel deals with posttraumatic stress disorder, a marriage on the rocks and car bombing. I read the Trilogy out of order and they can stand alone. The second novel is `Flirting with Disaster' December 2005 and the final novel `Waking up in Charleston' May 2006.

Charming character driven story.......2005-08-02

War correspondent Dinah Davis is devastated after watching her cameraman/lover murdered in a car bombing ambush while on assignment in Afghanistan. Her editor knows that she is hanging on by a thread, and recommends returning home for some R&R. She decides to quit, return to South Carolina, and look up the guy that said he would wait for her forever. Marrying Bobby would be her backup plan and a way to escape her guilt over losing Peter.

Depressed and spending the majority of her days watching soaps or sitting by the pool, Dinah is unsuccessful at hooking up with Bobby, who never seems to be in town (and is now engaged). She does not count on falling for his roguish bad-boy brother, Cordell. Cord has been in love with Dinah since they were kids; he even made up a little white lie to keep Dinah and Bobby apart, only to have it backfire on him. Dinah just thinks he is a trouble maker. While Cord claims to not be the marrying kind, he certainly does not want Dinah and Bobby to reconcile, so he schemes to keep Bobby on assignment in Atlanta.

The more time Cord and Dinah spend together, the harder they fall for each other, until he finally realizes that the only way to show his love for Dinah is to let her resolve the conflict that brought her home and has caused so much post traumatic stress. Dinah makes progress on her own with the help of a caring psychologist.

The Backup Plan is an entertaining romantic comedy with a hint of despair - parts of the book might make you cry, particularly her flashbacks to Afghanistan. The only thing standing in the way of a 5 star rating is the lack of depth into the character of Bobby. He was never developed, and really on appears on a handful of pages. This was an emotional and engaging story - guaranteed to keep you glued for nearly 400 pages.

deep character study.......2005-02-27

War correspondent Dinah Davis has covered many of the recent hot spots. Currently she is reporting on Afghanistan, but has lost her edge since she witnessed the death of a friend and was nearly killed too. Physically Dinah has healed, but her boss tells her she is not the same and should return to the States to marry and have babies. Initially refusing to listen, Dinah realizes that her career is over and wonders if her boyfriend Bobby Beaufort still waits for as he promised a decade ago when she chose journalism over marriage.

Back home in South Carolina, Dinah's mom worries that her daughter has not recovered from her last overseas assignment. Meanwhile Bobby's older brother Cord, who thought his sibling was a fool to agree to Dinah's backup plan, quickly wants to revise the arrangement by inserting himself as the groom. As Dinah suffers the malaise of post traumatic syndrome, she turns to Cord not her family or Bobby for comfort while he worries whether he will prove enough in the long run.

Though the actual backup plan of Bobby waiting for a decade seems strange, fans will appreciate this deep look into the traumas and tragedies civilians in combat areas can suffer. The story line is character driven once Dinah returns home moping and depressed. Adding to her depression is that she realizes her plan is a failure as she finds the sibling more attractive than the chosen one, but does not want to hurt the loyal Bobby. This is a strong tale that showcases the aftermath of horrific situations on survivors.

Harriet Klausner

Average customer rating:

Great Book
Needs improvement. Serious omissions.
Encyclopedia of NC
Encylopedia of North Carolina
Encyclopedia of NC - Must Have Reference for North Carolinians

Encyclopedia of North Carolina

Manufacturer: The University of North Carolina Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0807830712
Release Date: 2006-10-25

Book Description

The first single-volume reference to the events, institutions, and cultural forces that have defined the state, the Encyclopedia of North Carolina is a landmark publication that will serve those who love and live in North Carolina for generations to come. Editor William S. Powell, whom the Raleigh News & Observer described as a "living repository of information on all things North Carolinian," spent fifteen years developing this volume. With contributions by more than 550 volunteer writers—including scholars, librarians, journalists, and many others—it is a true "people's encyclopedia" of North Carolina.

The volume includes more than 2,000 entries, presented alphabetically, consisting of longer essays on major subjects, briefer entries, and short summaries and definitions. Most entries include suggestions for further reading. Centered on history and the humanities, topics covered include agriculture; arts and architecture; business and industry; the Civil War; culture and customs; education; geography; geology, mining, and archaeology; government, politics, and law; media; medicine, science, and technology; military history; natural environment; organizations, clubs, and foundations; people, languages, and immigration; places and historic preservation; precolonial and colonial history; recreation and tourism; religion; and transportation.

An informative and engaging compendium, the Encyclopedia of North Carolina is abundantly illustrated with 400 photographs and maps. It is both a celebration and a gift—from the citizens of North Carolina, to the citizens of North Carolina.

Customer Reviews:

Great Book.......2007-04-05

A great book by a great historian. Not only is this an essential reference guide to all things in North Carolina, but it represents a culmination Professor Powell's career, one of North Carolina's greatest treasures. I purchased it not only because I wanted it but also as a means of honoring Professor Powell. In regard to the comment about the lack of biographies in this book, I assume that comment was made in jest. But for those not familiar with Professor Powell's previous works, he previously published (in the late 1970's and 1980's) a six volume "Dictionary of North Carolina Biographies."

Needs improvement. Serious omissions........2007-01-19

Encyclopedic guides to states, cities and regions are coming hot off the presses now. I was anxiously awaiting this one, but I've come away slightly disappointed. Most obvious to me at first are the serious omissions in the book: There are absolutely ZERO biographical articles in here. What happened there? There's an article for every imaginable institution of higher learning, including many long extinct, but not an entry for James K. Polk, William Tryon, Michael Jordan, Jesse Jackson, James Taylor or Jessie Helms. Not all North Carolina natives, mind you, but all with profound impacts on the state's history. Some general entries (such as "Mealtimes") aren't immediately applicable to North Carolina at all, but are linked by a contrived peculiarity, as could be done for any other state in the country. Impressive in scope and certainly not a complete failure, but incomplete enough to justify a much improved second edition.

Encyclopedia of NC.......2007-01-18

This book has lots of wonderful information about the Tar Heel State. I recommend the book to newcomers to our state as well as to NC natives. This would be a great resource for students in the fourth grade to use.

Encylopedia of North Carolina.......2007-01-18

Dr. William Powell, Professor Emeritus of History at the University of North Carolina, has published this huge book which contains everything you may ever wish to know about the history of North Carolina. It is well written and easy to use.

Encyclopedia of NC - Must Have Reference for North Carolinians.......2007-01-18

I got the Encyclopedia of NC as a gift for my Dad. I was able to browse through it before I gave it to him. The variety of entries on North Carolina is exhaustive (the subject "privies" is included). Most entries are concise but others longer. My dad keeps it by his easy chair and reads it regularly. I can easily say it is the best gift I have given him in his 85 years. I think it belongs in at least every native North Carolinian's home.

Average customer rating:

Grippingly Written, Moving, and Historically Powerful
Evangelical Pastor - 63 years old
A mixture of polemic, interesting recollections, and accounts of questionable credibility
Heartbreaking and Revelatory
essential

Blood Done Sign My Name: A True Story
Timothy B. Tyson
Manufacturer: Crown
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0609610589
Release Date: 2004-05-18

Amazon.com

When he was but 10 years old, Tim Tyson heard one of his boyhood friends in Oxford, N.C. excitedly blurt the words that were to forever change his life: "Daddy and Roger and 'em shot 'em a nigger!" The cold-blooded street murder of young Henry Marrow by an ambitious, hot-tempered local businessman and his kin in the Spring of 1970 would quickly fan the long-flickering flames of racial discord in the proud, insular tobacco town into explosions of rage and street violence. It would also turn the white Tyson down a long, troubled reconciliation with his Southern roots that eventually led to a professorship in African-American studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison--and this profoundly moving, if deeply troubling personal meditation on the true costs of America's historical racial divide. Taking its title from a traditional African-American spiritual, Tyson skillfully interweaves insightful autobiography (his father was the town's anti-segregationist Methodist minister, and a man whose conscience and human decency greatly informs the son) with a painstakingly nuanced historical analysis that underscores how little really changed in the years and decades after the Civil Rights Act of 1965 supposedly ended racial segregation. The details are often chilling: Oxford simply closed its public recreation facilities rather than integrate them; Marrow's accused murderers were publicly condemned, yet acquitted; the very town's newspaper records of the events--and indeed the author's later account for his graduate thesis--mysteriously removed from local public records. But Tyson's own impassioned personal history lessons here won't be denied; they're painful, yet necessary reminders of a poisonous American racial legacy that's so often been casually rewritten--and too easily carried forward into yet another century by politicians eagerly employing the cynical, so-called "Southern Strategy." --Jerry McCulley

Book Description

"Daddy and Roger and 'em shot 'em a nigger."

Those words, whispered to ten-year-old Tim Tyson by one of his playmates in the late spring of 1970, heralded a firestorm that would forever transform the small tobacco market town of Oxford, North Carolina.

On May 11, 1970, Henry Marrow, a 23-year-old black veteran, walked into a crossroads store owned by Robert Teel, a rough man with a criminal record and ties to the Ku Klux Klan, and came out running. Teel and two of his sons chased Marrow, beat him unmercifully, and killed him in public as he pleaded for his life. In the words of a local prosecutor: "They shot him like you or I would kill a snake."

Like many small Southern towns, Oxford had barely been touched by the civil rights movement. But in the wake of the killing, young African Americans took to the streets, led by 22-year-old Ben Chavis, a future president of the NAACP. As mass protests crowded the town square, a cluster of returning Vietnam veterans organized what one termed "a military operation." While lawyers battled in the courthouse that summer in a drama that one termed "a Perry Mason kind of thing," the Ku Klux Klan raged in the shadows and black veterans torched the town's tobacco warehouses.

With large sections of the town in flames, Tyson's father, the pastor of Oxford's all-white Methodist church, pressed his congregation to widen their vision of humanity and pushed the town to come to terms with its bloody racial history. In the end, however, the Tyson family was forced to move away.

Years later, historian Tim Tyson returned to Oxford to ask Robert Teel why he and his sons had killed Henry Marrow. "That nigger committed suicide, coming in here wanting to four-letter-word my daughter-in-law," Teel explained.

The black radicals who burned much of Oxford also told Tim their stories. "It was like we had a cash register up there at the pool hall, just ringing up how much money we done cost these white people," one of them explained. "We knew if we cost 'em enough goddamn money they was gonna start changing some things."

In the tradition of To Kill a Mockingbird, Blood Done Sign My Name is a classic work of conscience, a defining portrait of a time and place that we will never forget. Tim Tyson's riveting narrative of that fiery summer and one family's struggle to build bridges in a time of destruction brings gritty blues truth, soaring gospel vision, and down-home humor to our complex history, where violence and faith, courage and evil, despair and hope all mingle to illuminate America's enduring chasm of race.

Customer Reviews:

Grippingly Written, Moving, and Historically Powerful.......2007-08-16

I finally got around to reading this memoir this summer and was in awe of the author's narrative gifts. This story reads like a novel and is full of plain human wisdom, an emotional openness combining humility and pride, wry humor, sharp political analysis, and a can't-put-it-down story line that comes to terms with America's number one cultural problem: racism. This is a book of local history that gets at the human condition, and a work of history that reads like great literature. I'm telling everyone I can to read it, and that includes whoever reads this. Don't pay attention to any of the so-called "corrections" made by some other reviewers here. This is a must-read historical work that shows an astute and perceptive ability to understand its widely varying participants' points of view and experiences, while not shrinking from the moral and historical obligation to draw judgments. There is only one word to use: *brilliant.* (I'm not one to use that lightly when talking about either autobiography or
history.)

Disclaimer: The writer of this review is a professional historian with a Ph.D., but one who has never met Timothy Tyson.

Evangelical Pastor - 63 years old.......2007-07-29

Few books are as challenging for me as this one. I lived through the years of this story and consistently refused to believe that our racism was as extensive or deeply rooted as it was. Take away: the challenge to see it in our present day and to do something about it.

A mixture of polemic, interesting recollections, and accounts of questionable credibility.......2007-07-18

I was born and grew up in Oxford, North Carolina as a white boy, and graduated from the
University of North Carolina in 1949. I have lived in a suburb of Baltimore, Maryland for many
years.

Tyson deserves credit for deploring the murder and acquittal of the murderer in the book.
However, he tends to be polemic: all black people in it are noble; all but a few white people are
some combination of racist, ignorant, or narrow-minded. (It is similar in that respect to Leon
Uris's novel "Exodus", in which all Jews are noble and bigger than life, while all others are hateful
or, at best, not very bright.)

He often uses a down-home style of writing, calling his parents "Daddy" and "Mama" and being
addressed as "Little Buck" by his father, which he apparently feels makes him and his family seem
to be folksy, good plain people.

However, the book is not without its shortcomings.

Accounts of questionable credibility:

¶¶He states that tear gas was used by Oxford police in 1944 to dispel a crowd of black people
who were protesting the arrest of two men. I witnessed the event and remember no tear gas--had
there been, I think I would never have forgotten it.

¶¶An account of the torching of buildings in Oxford on May 25, 1970 by angry black people
following the killing of Marrow describes two tobacco warehouses which were among
them:"Inside these warehouses were eight hundred thousand pounds of golden cured tobacco, a
known flammable substance, with a total value of more than a million dollars." I find it hard to
believe that any tobacco would have been in those warehouses in May.

Tobacco was brought by the farmers to Oxford warehouses from mid-September through
mid-November, where it was sold at auction and immediately taken by the buyers to their Oxford
processing plants, and then shipped off to the cigarette manufacturers. By some time in late
November, all of the warehouses became empty.

Although the whole procedure I describe above could have changed somewhat by 1970, I still
find it hard to believe that there would have been tobacco in the warehouses in May, by which
time it would have probably become dry and crumbly.

¶¶The following exchange supposedly took place during the 1930's between Major T.G. stem (a
prominent white man in Oxford) and a man described in the book as "a local white bootlegger."
Having occurred long before Tyson was born, it was recounted to him by Thad Stem, the Major's
son and a close friend of the Tyson family.

"Major Stem was leaving Hall's drugstore with his son (Thad) and they passed Mrs. G. C. Shaw,
the wife of the principal at Mary Potter High, the local Negro high school.

'Good afternoon, Mrs. Shaw,' the Major said, tipping his hat.

A local white bootlegger, idling under the store awning, accosted Major Stem. 'Why'd you call
that [...] woman Mrs. Shaw'?" he demanded.

'Well, Mrs. Shaw's older than I am,' he began softly. 'She's better educated than I am,and she has
more money.' Then, thrusting the bootlegger away from him, the major exploded: 'But more to
the point, what I call Mrs. Shaw is none of your goddamned business, you low-life taxidermist,
you two-for-a-nickel jackal, you knee-crawling [...], net.' These were the days when
people really knew how to cuss. Back then, the appendage 'net' meant a real [...]...on the
way home (Thad) asked his father why on earth he had called the bootlegger a 'taxidermist.' The
major said quietly that a taxidermist is a man who mounts animals."

If not a total fabrication, the story seems to me to have been mostly made up.

In those earlier times, I never heard any white person in Oxford address or refer to a black person
as Mr./Mrs./Ms. (However, by some strange logic, a black doctor was referred to as Dr. X by
white people. Dr. Ellis Toney was a black practitioner there for many years and was so referred
to. The same was the case for some black ministers, who were referred to as Pastor or Reverend
such-and-such.)

¶¶In writing about the slave trade, Tyson speaks of "the dark Atlantic, where the bones of
somewhere around ten million Africans settled into the sand, thrown overboard by the slave ships
that plied those waters in the early days of the republic (the USA)."

Where did this 10 million figure come from? Tyson provides no source. One reference, "Slavery:
A World History", by Milton Meltzer, says that about 2.2 million died that way.

Degrading most of Oxford's black people by stereotyping them as uncultured:

The most puzzling aspect of the book is: On the one hand, Tyson makes the legitimate point that
black residents of Oxford and Granville County, after long having been subjected to a segregated,
inferior status in society, deserved to be recognized as having equal rights with white citizens.
Yet, at the same time, he consistently shows these same black people as being crude and unable to
say anything without massacring English grammar.

"I knowed him right good, and I liked him all right. He didn't hurt nobody." "Yeah, we was
listening to TV, that's how we got involved in the first sit-ins in Oxford, because we saw on TV
they was doing it up in Greensboro." "Me and a guy named Ronald Jordan, me and him climbed
up on the Confederate soldier..." And there are many more.

I know from personal experience that many black people in Oxford, then and now, are much more
cultured than Tyson portrays them. I also know from my volunteer work at the Helping Up
Mission in Baltimore, where I tutor men who are recovering from drug and alcohol addiction in
the 3R's (all of whom to date have been black), that most black people, like anyone anywhere, will
grasp an opportunity to become more cultured.

Heartbreaking and Revelatory.......2007-05-18

An essential history and memoir of a time whose facts are often forgotten and even actively repressed. The present doesn't make sense without honestly examining the past, and this book does that with humility and emotional power. Even if you think you know this history (as I did) you very well may not.

essential.......2007-03-15

For those of us who think we understand by reading about racial prejudice and thinking about what it must be like, should read this book. We still won't really understand, but we will be a much closer than we were before.

Average customer rating:

Just a Terrific Warm Story!
A wonderful moving story
Couldn't get into it
I Am Hooked on This Author!
An awe-inspiring novel. One of the best books I've ever read.

Sullivan's Island
Dorothea Benton Frank
Manufacturer: Berkley Trade
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

Set in the steamy, stormy landscape of South Carolina, Sullivan's Island tells the unforgettable story of one woman's courageous journey toward truth.

Born and raised on idyllic Sullivan's Island, Susan Hayes navigated through her turbulent childhood with humor, spunk, and characteristic Southern sass. But years later, she is a conflicted woman with an unfaithful husband, a sometimes resentful teenage daughter, and a heart that aches with painful, poignant memories. And as Susan faces her uncertain future, she realizes that she must go back to her past. To the beachfront house where her sister welcomes her with open arms. To the only place she can truly call home.

Customer Reviews:

Just a Terrific Warm Story!.......2007-09-26

Sullivan's Island is truly a wonderful novel that is straight from the heart about family life. Ms. Frank's real gift is evident in her ability to create such a believable and likeable heroine. The novel is set in the Deep South and if you have ever traveled and spent time in that beautiful area this story will bring back memories of the ocean and marshes of the South. The book is full of the local color and flavor of Charleston's barrier islands and the author does a wonderful job of evoking the laid-back atmosphere of this area. All in all, it was an entertaining read that is ideal for an easy at the beach. I'd gladly recommend this book to all my friends.

A wonderful moving story.......2007-09-11

My neighbor gave this book to take along to the beach. She insisted that I would love it and that it was a great beach read. Well, she was right. Sullivan's Island was a wonderful, moving story. There were bits of humorous moments that kept the story on a lighter tone. Sometimes I couldn't help but laugh out loud and at times I wanted to cry. The characters were seemed real to me and they were people that I could relate to. This book was consistently interesting, and it was hard to put down.

Couldn't get into it.......2007-06-27

This was the first time i read a book by this author and it will be my last. For some reason i couldn't get into this book, i'm used to contemporary romance and this didn't have it. I feel bad that i only gave it 1 star but some other readers might like it!

I Am Hooked on This Author!.......2007-05-19

Couldn't put this book down and you know a book is really good when reading it makes you laugh out loud!! I have become addicted to Dorthea Benton Frank's writing. I have visited the areas that she writes about and reading her books makes me what to go back to South Carolina as soon as I can.

An awe-inspiring novel. One of the best books I've ever read........2006-09-17

This book is written with such flare and polish that it's hard to believe that this is Dorothea Benton Frank's first novel! Her conversational style of writing is highly appealing, and this beautiful saga is full of drama and history. There are no words to describe how much I loved this book!

The Buildings of Charleston: A Guide to the City's Architecture

Average customer rating:

An absolute must if you love architecture and Charleston.

The Buildings of Charleston: A Guide to the City's Architecture
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Customer Reviews:

An absolute must if you love architecture and Charleston........1997-12-12

Mr. Poston has done an excellent and exhaustive job with this book. To my knowledge it is the most comprehensive compilation to date. As well as photographs of the houses plans are also shown for many. A 9+ only because I'm reluctant to say that the "perfect" book has ever been published.

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