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Crows is this year's. Hollywood Station was the one I tried.

I was the one, Martha. I haven't read it yet, but my aunt told me about it and said that it mentions my uncle, the Reverend Samuel Curtis Shirah who lost his church in Birmingham because he dared pray for the 4 little black girls killed in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in 1963. Uncle Sam and his son Sam Junior feature prominently in a book called Freedom Walk: Mississippi or Bust written by Mary Stanton.

EmmaG

I finished "Miss Julia Strikes Back" by Ann B. Ross. If one likes to read a well-written book just for fun, I suggest the "Miss Julia" series. With a lot of series, however, the car trains that follow the engine never quite seem to have enough steam to make it down the track by themselves.

When I read the first "Miss Julia" book I was so taken with the characters, I wanted to read more about them. And thus a series is born.

"Miss Julia Strikes Back" started off with some of the most colorful characters away on trips and Miss Julia beside herself with boredom -- ho hum -- so was I. The author quickly gets Miss Julia in a humorous, although impossible to accept, solution to her problems. With Miss Julia's fight to regain jewelry that was stolen, she finds and fleshes out new interesting characters.

I actually began to enjoy reading the book until the last 75 pages when I confess I skipped to the last chapter and gladly left Abbottsville, North Carolina to visit another day.

Miss Julia's first book an "A+"
Miss Julia Strikes Back a kindly "C+"

Respectfully,

Kathy

Note to Kathy: In my way-too-persnickity world, there are no A+'s!

Note to Emma: I have the other one on my need-to-find list.

Barack Obama's The Audacity of Hope is well worth reading—and that sentence itself is an understatement. The book contains nothing surprising—Obama comes across as a downright, unabashed, old-fashioned librul (as Stereoman would say), but most everyone has already figured that out. But he also comes across as a caring, thoughtful man. (Yes, I'm voting for him, and if he wins, I hope I'm not horribly disappointed.)

Let's do specifics.

1) At one point Obama describes the "ideological core of today's GOP" as "no government beyond what's required to protect private property and provide for the common defense." (page 37) I found that description interesting because I recently finished reading The Federalist Papers (yes, eventually I'll do a review) and can see them being so interpreted. I disagree, but Obama's words and The Federalist Papers, IMHO, make understandable some views of the true conservatives.

2) I found Obama to be fair-minded. "… our democracy might work a bit better if we recognized that all of us possess values that are worthy of respect." (page 57) Now I ask: have any of you ever gotten even an inkling that President Bush respects any views besides his own or those held by his sycophants?

3) Obama describes his emotional response to losing an early campaign. "They're the sorts of feelings that most people haven't experienced since high school, when the girl you'd been pining over dismissed you with a joke in front of her friends, or you missed a pair of free throws with the big game on the line—the kinds of feelings that most adults wisely organize their lives to avoid." (page 107) We do, don't we? I know that except for sending out my writing to be rejected, I sure do.

4) Interesting: "In a 2003 poll, most Indonesians had a higher opinion of Osama bin Laden than they did of George W. Bush." (page 278) Question: think only Indonesians hold that opinion?

5) The core of Obama's foreign policy appears diametrically opposed to that of George w. Bush's. "When the world's sole superpower willingly restrains its power and abides by internationally agreed-upon standards of conduct, it sends a message that these rules are worth following, and robs terrorists and dictators of the argument that these rules are simply tools of American imperialism." (page 309) Ah. Signs of an inner, quiet strength. A quality devoutly to be wished.

6) And, finally, I've saved the most personal response for last. Obama describes the first time he saw the White House. "I marveled not at the White House's elegant sweep, but rather at the fact that it was so exposed to the hustle and bustle of the city; that we were allowed to stand so close to the gate …. The openness of the White House said something about our confidence as a democracy, I thought. It embodied the notion that our leaders were not so different from us; that they remained subject to our laws and common consent. (pages 43-44) He then describes Pennsylvania Avenue now. And how is that personal? As many of you know, I grew up, mostly, in a suburb of DC. That meant frequent trips downtown. Also, as many of you have probably figured out, my disability has curtailed travel. (Oh, I'd probably still travel, but my husband would kill me. Traveling is thus fraught with danger—in many ways.) So I now remember the open DC Obama describes, and—believe it or not—as actual benefit of the advancing MS is that I don't have to see the barricaded DC that now exists.

I know what you mean, Martha. As you know, I also grew up outside of DC. I remember a 6th grade field trip visiting the White House where your biggest concern was catching a glimpse of the Kennedy family passing by. I recall my prom night where my date and I dangled out feet in the Reflexing Pool with Abe Lincoln looking down at us from his memorial above. My husband (then boyfriend) and his visiting grade school buddies from NH would see how many times they could run up and down the stairs of the Washington Monument just for fun. And visits to the National Cathedral always involved fun little side trips into secret rooms and out of the way places. No one ever stopped us or really paid us any mind. Now just to walk into the Smithsonian (or any government bldg for that matter), one has to wait in long lines first to have their bags and cameras checked. Definitely puts a damper on the whole experience.

As frequently happens, Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods came into the house in spite of my best intentions. You see, a friend had taken me to Costco and I immediately headed for the book area, figuring I'd more likely find something of interest there than in appliances or cereal. Sadly, that wasn't to be because Costco stacks books in piles high enough to be seen easily by people who walk. People in wheelchairs need not bother looking. But that was okay. My shelf of un-reads was full; I didn't need another book. I had shrugged and driven off when my friend called me back. She was holding up a paperback book. "Screamingly funny," she said. "You have to read it." No, I don't, I wanted to say but, manners above everything, I took the book she held out to me. "Um," I said, glancing at the cover and reaching up to put it back on its stack, the top of which I couldn't quite reach. "No," she said. "Buy it. You'll love it. Really." Doomed, I thought. Stuck with a book my friend loved. Trying not to think about what the height of the stack said about the book's appeal to others, I smiled and bought the book.

So now I've read it and am happy to report it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it might be. It was funny. The author, Bryson, has decided to hike the entire Appalachian Trail and begins reading about what to expect. Black bears, he soon learns, are among those things. But the material stresses how rare attacks are, and Bryson ends the bear section with: "And how foolish one must be to be reassured by the information that no bear has killed a human in Vermont or New Hampshire for 200 years? That's not because the bears have signed a treaty, you know. There's nothing to say they won't start a modest rampage tomorrow." (page 17) The idea amused me.

Amusement faded when he moved away from humor and discussed geology and the natural history of the Appalachian Trail. But what the heck? It's probably stuff I should have learned in eighth-grade science. Better late than never.

Finally, I'm happy to report A Walk in the Woods only added three books to my want-to-read list. There's a passing reference to Dickey's Deliverance which I sense I should read. Any suggestions there? Should I? And the book's back cover lists that Bryson has written two books on language. Wouldn't mind giving him another try in that field. All in all, I'd say A Walk in the Woods was a moderate success. Guess I'm sorta glad its stack was as tall as it was.

Martha, your description of "A Walk in the Woods" almost hooked me when you said it was funny; however, I have walked part of the AT and I don't want to read about the geology.

Today at the beauty shop I read a review of the book by the author that was disgraced by Oprah. I liked one sentence of the review. "The man was obviously frightened by a comma in his early life."

About Dickey: He was for many years a professor at the University of South Carolina. He mostly wrote poetry. In cleaning out the house we just sold, I came across a personally autographed book of his poetry. I had given it to my mother years ago. It is quite a lovely coffee table book with low country paintings.

No I won't even offer to bring it by. I know. I know, your bookcase is full and this one would fill an entire shelf all by itself.

I read Deliverance when the movie came out. I remember raving about it to my employer at the time. The movie sold the book short.

Kathy

About feeling forced to read a book: one of the advocates and supporters of the women authors, Carolyn Hart has a new cozy mystery entitled "Death Walked In." Carolyn has become an e-mail friend of mine. She is a good source for finding the kind of mindless reading that I often seek.

I actually accidentally purchased not one but TWO copies of her book: one through Amazon and one through the Mystery Guild. I believe in supporting those that "give back." I struggled to get to even 100 pages of this latest book. It just didn't hook me. Now I'm on the downhill slide and am actually enjoying it.

At least she knows about the locations of which she writes. This book takes place on an imaginary island off the coast of South Carolina in February. She writes that the (Lord I don't want to look up the spelling) camelia susquantias were in bloom. Yes, February is the time they bloom so beautifully. Unlike a great author Ken Follett whom when writing about winter in Huntsville, AL said the camelias had a lovely fragrance (they do not smell) and the bouganvelia (sp) sitting on the porch was a lovely color. (WRONG! WRONG!)

I did decide that with so many "average" books being published that I may attempt to write something light myself. Carolyn suggested I read a book called "How to Write Killer Fiction." Have you read it? If so, do you recommend?

Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth impressed me enough that I decided to try one of his earlier suspense novels, specifically The Third Twin. The title caught my attention—as did most of the story. Most of? Yep. Just most of. While I was trying to figure out what had happened years ago that led to the book's present that involved one suspected rapist, one murderer and one nice guy who are all identical, I was hooked. Once the mystery was solved though, the book turned into: will the good guys stop the bad guys in time to prevent even more bad things from happening? Since I never had any doubt that the good guys would win, the last hundred pages were pretty dull. I don't remember Pillars as turning tedious, and memory says that Follett kept piling on unexpected-but-believable events until the last few pages.

I will give him one scene in Twin where he presented the essence of a few characters in an extremely clever way—IMHO. One of the point-of-view characters introduces herself to a guard at a prison.
In those two words, Follett sums up all you need to know about Temoigne. Wow!

And I have a question. There's a reference to the size of the parking lot at the Pentagon: "In the Midwest there were towns (italics his) smaller than the Pentagon parking lot." (page 359) I don't know. Never been there. Has anyone? How much of an exaggeration is it?

Bottom line is now that I've sampled one of Follett's older books, I'm happy forget about him and wait for the sequel to Pillars to come out in paperback. What's the title? World Without End? I'm leery that I'm going to start it with the phrase book-without-end firmly embedded in my mind. I realize no good can come of that.