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Despite what it said in the New York Times or the Congressional Record, not everybody in America got the word right away about the civil rights movement. Thus it was that well into the 1970s, McIntosh County in backwoods Georgia remained a place where the black majority still had never elected one of their own to any county office, where black kids were bused away from the white school, and where the white county sheriff had his hand in every racket there was. Praying for Sheetrock is the saga of how, thanks to the leadership of a black shop-steward-turned-county-commissioner named Thurnell Alston, together with the aid of a cadre of idealistic Legal Services lawyers (Melissa Greene was one of their paralegals) this situation began to change. The story, written as grippingly as a novel, is charged with twists that only nonfiction can deliver; for example, Alston, for all the brave good he did, ultimately got caught in a federal sting and went to jail while the corrupt sheriff walked. This is, writes Greene, a story of "large and important things happening in a very little place."
Book Description
Finalist for the 1991 National Book Award and a New York Times Notable book, Praying for Sheetrock is the story of McIntosh County, a small, isolated, and lovely place on the flowery coast of Georgia--and a county where, in the 1970s, the white sheriff still wielded all the power, controlling everything and everybody. Somehow the sweeping changes of the civil rights movement managed to bypass McIntosh entirely. It took one uneducated, unemployed black man, Thurnell Alston, to challenge the sheriff and his courthouse gang--and to change the way of life in this community forever.
"An inspiring and absorbing account of the struggle for human dignity and racial equality" (Coretta Scott King)
Customer Reviews:
Praying for Sheetrpcl.......2007-06-27
An interesting review of the southern black population, and how their self esteem was, and possibly still is, somewhat depressed because of the discrimination toward them, by people who were victims of their upbringing, not intentionally putting them down.
Excellent and Accurate Portrayal.......2007-02-02
Having been born and raised in a small community in south Georgia, I have seen first-hand much of what was described in this book. I found this work to be incredibly interesting and moving. Have attitudes evolved and changed for the better in this area? Yes, fortunately. Are there still traces of this? Yes, unfortunately. But with excellent works such as this, we can only hope that the sad attitudes and discrimination that is so accurately described in Ms. Greene's work will become a part of our distant past.
A story of race in the south of the 1970's.......2006-11-21
My first thought on this book was 'did you really think that a few laws and a few court cases was going to make really serious differences in the way people thought. Yes, you can force some things, like the attendance of a token few blacks at an all white high school, but back in the remote hinterlands life is going to go on much as before.
This is a story of race in a backwater southern community where an old-time sheriff continued to rule his domain much as before. The result was, eventually, for white legal aid attorneys to overthrow the system.
This is a story of race, but it's also a story of the lack of political power for a selected community. Much the same tale could have been told of Chicago in the Daley days, of jews during the holocaust and unfortunately of many other peoples over many other times. It is a fascinating story that ultimately offers some hope for the future.
An evocative oral history and a provocative work of journalism.......2006-02-22
There are a number of astonishing things about this provocative and evocative history of a remote coastal region of Georgia. Greene's chronicle is not simply an account of the institutional and covert racism that plagued one Southern county. Nor is it merely a biography of an unlikely black leader who led a momentous, peaceful rebellion against the white hierarchy before succumbing (at best) to his own credulity or (at worst) to the very corruption he criticized. Instead, "Praying for Sheetrock" is a composite oral history of a complex, deceptively quiet community during the 1970s and 1980s, where the social norms seemed old-fashioned, even quaint, and where even justifiably disgruntled citizens, both white and black, are restrained equally by an ill-defined sense of fear and by a desire to get along with their neighbors.
At the time of the writing, McIntosh County had been dominated by a corrupt yet efficient, nepotistic yet clever "Old Boy" network, but it was also populated by an impoverished black community that, on the surface, seemed to have been on good terms with the local white authorities all through the chaos of the civil rights struggle. For many years, state and federal authorities suspected that county officials, led by Sheriff Tom Poppell, had been deeply implicated in jury tampering, tax evasion, bribery, illegal gambling, drug-running, prostitution, and even murder. Folks joked that Poppell "was the only sheriff in America who owned four houses, one with an airfield, and all on twelve thousand dollars a year." Yet every attempt by higher authorities (who regularly indicated on their reports that Poppell was to be considered "armed and dangerous") failed to nab the suspects. The victims of their never-indicted yet well-documented activities included tourists on the way through the county to family vacations in Florida as well as the local poor.
The story of how this county eventually entered the late 20th century makes fascinating reading, and Greene's prose is an odd yet refreshing blend of journalism and lyricism. (It was included among the top 100 works of 20th-century American journalism by the New York University School of Journalism.) The reader is repeatedly stunned by her ability to persuade such a wide spectrum of local citizens--rich and poor, white and black, conservative and liberal--to talk at such length and with such honesty. Only at the very end of the book, in the acknowledgments, does it become clear that the author was far from a Janie-come-lately to the scene: she worked at Georgia Legal Services (which provided advice on civil liberties matters for the black community), was a witness to most of the events, and married one of the lawyers featured in the book. Rather than prejudicing her account, her experiences give the events an insider's perspective and make her relative objectivity all the more admirable. In fact, it's safe to say that only Greene could have written this book. And, much like "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" (itself set only a few miles to the north), her book manages to look underneath the scandal and the poverty and to reveal much to admire in the gentle camaraderie of these easygoing neighbors.
Above all, "Praying for Sheetrock" reminds us of the courageous heroes who look "upon law, upon the Constitution, as a series of fundamental truths about basic human rights." Those heroes include black community members, young and old, willing to risk everything for those rights; the lawyers who represented and advised them for next to nothing; and the small yet powerful number of local whites who believed that enough was enough. It's an inspiring tale that reminds us that the civil rights struggle is far from over.
Very Very Good.......2006-01-26
You will enjoy this book, it took a long time for things to get right in southern Georgia, You will find that there is power in numbers,especially if your on the side with the most numbers.
There is also some very funny stories in this book.
Book Description
Are the nude spies lolling in the ancient Roman communal baths of Elizabethan England plotting the return of Mary Queen of Scots' She is said to be clamoring to return to these healing waters. Once again Susanna, Lady Appleton, encounters murder and treason, and only she can unravel the crimes in the intriguing year of 1575. Rosamund, Susanna's twelveyearold foster daughter, is certain her French tutor has been murdered. Rosamund and her friends are quite modern: they cut school, rebel against authority, and giggle over secrets. But can teenage mischief be construed as spying and treason' These are most significant matters to the Elizabethans, as the wrong religion, the wrong marriage, the wrong friends...may all be seditious.
Customer Reviews:
So Good....but So Disturbing!.......2007-10-05
First of all, let me say that this is a difficult book to rate and review. There are parts of this book that deserve a 10 star rating in my opinion, but there are also components that left me feeling "dirty" and "horrified" and make me not recommend the book at all. I'll try not to include spoilers for those who will read this book after reading this review.
First the good. As far as sensuality, I've never read anything like this. Surprisingly this comes in the form of CONVERSATION. The couple develop their relationship in the context of several early morning, explicit, frank, detailed descriptions and preferences around the act (or art) of sex. By the time the couple actually come together, their relationship is so deep...based on brutal honesty, vulnurability, and attraction. I completely "bought in" to these two people, and when they finally committed to one another it seemed natural, appropriate, and destined.
Now the bad. Personally, I do not prefer for my reading to include homosexuality. This novel was good enough that I may have been able to stomach even the story line of homosexuality had it not been laced with incest and pedophelia. I did not enjoy this twist in the story at all. Sexual abuse in any form sickens and offends me. It is because of this part of the story that I can only give it 3 stars. A shame because the parts of the story that only include Elizabeth and Ramiel are really incredible and entirely unique to anything I've read in the past.
If you decide to read this, I would warn you of the graphic nature of this novel. In my opionion, this nature is this novel's greatest strength and it's greatest weakness.
A Romantica must-have.......2006-10-10
This is the first Schone book, I ever read and from then on I was hooked. This book was sexy, and intriguing, and so wonderful. the evolving relationship between Ramiel and Elisabeth grows from her need to become a more perfect wife and his need to be accepted by the British ton.
Together they discover what they really need fro, each other: Love, forgiveness, and acceptance of who they really are.
A Must Read.......2006-05-19
Absolutely the best book of erotica that I have ever read. It was not about "sex" but about relationships. Awesome!
lothario and repressed mother bond over sex talk.......2006-02-26
OK, first of all: this book is an Orientalist nightmare. Schone talks about "Arabia" as though it's a place (where, pray tell? - this book never gives a clue), has pretty much zero idea what a harem is (a place where women and children live - i.e., wives and daughters as well as concubines, should they happen to exist) or what harem life is generally like, she blathers on about the secrets of Oriental or Arab sexuality, and talks about Arab savagery as though it is a foregone conclusion....
I'll admit that sort of thing pisses me off, but I was willing to suspend the indignation while I was reading because it was a pretty good book.
The way it's written is deliberately shocking. Each chapter alternates between Elizabeth's normal life, and her Ramiel life. Since her normal life is a nightmare - she is treated with the utmost contempt by the people who are closest to her - and she spends all of her time with Ramiel talking about sex, the alternation between the two has a bit of a good cop/bad cop feel. It goes hot and cold (pretty literally), over and over again. Snapping between one and the other unbalances the reader, making you more vulnerable to the content.
I understand why this is called an "erotic" romance - I think there's just as much plot here, and easily as much characterization, as in an average romance but it really is much more sexual. The scenes where they're just talking may be the sexiest of all: two people fully clothed and sitting across the desk from one another saying the most explicit and intimate things that they can think of.
I would have liked to understand better exactly what Ramiel saw in Elizabeth. He seems to think that she's the only person who cares about him, or sees him as a human, but she doesn't hesitate to mistrust, misjudge & mistreat him - which he notices, and finds offensive. His mother seems to think that it's because they're both running from something - but that doesn't really strike me as being sufficient.
In the end, I'm giving it five stars because it's well written, and because Ramiel is so clearly drawn and so devastatingly appealing.
Amazing, Incredible Book....Sizzling Hot!!.......2006-01-26
I still can't get over how good this book was. It was incredible. I don't know how Schone did it. The story is set in late 1800's, Victorian times. Elizabeth seems to be the perfect Victorian wife. But she isn't. All she wants is to be loved, to experience passion, to feel alive. She is not able to get that from her husband. He shows her no love, no tenderness. So she seeks out Ramiel who is known as a bastard shiek; a man who knows how please a woman in many ways. She hopes that he can teach her how to seduce her husband; so he teaches her the art of seduction through a book and with his words. Soon the heat and passion becomes too much for them, and they have to face their feelings for one another. Meanwhile someone is trying to kill Elizabeth. Her husband is hiding a dark secret. Elizabeth's life is unravelling and she is trying to gain her control and life back. Ramiel is so sexy and hot. He is so good to Elizabeth. The dialogue between the two of them is amazing, and yes, highly erotic. I just loved this book. It is a must read.
Product Description
Married young to a man hand-picked by her father, Elizabeth Petre is an ideal Victorian lady. She has borne two sons and endured sixteen years of selfless duty in a passionless marriage. Craving a man's loving touch yet loyal to her wedding vows, Elizabeth is determined to seduce her coldly indifferent husband. She knows of only one man who can teach her the erotic secrets of love. A LESSON IN LOVE The bastard son of an English countess and an Arab sheik, Ramiel Devington was reared to embrace both Western culture and Eastern pleasure. Scorned by society and challenged by prim Elizabeth's request, he undertakes her instruction in the art of sensual delight. But when the lessons become a temptation neither can resist, Elizabeth is forced to choose between obligation and forbidden passion...
Book Description
On Earth, satanist Quinn Dexter possesses a new army of the damned, using them to initiate The Night's Dawn, the entropic annihilation of all Creation. At the same time Joshua Calvert, master of the Lady Macbeth, seeks a miracle in a haystack: the truth behind a legend that 15,000 years ago the alien Tyrathca intercepted a single message from unexplored space beyond Orion: "IT SEES THE UNIVERSE. IT CONTROLS EVERYTHING. OUR ARRIVAL WOKE IT." Could a God be sleeping somewhere between the stars? And can Joshua possibly find this unknown Deity before The Night's Dawn devours the cosmos?
Customer Reviews:
Just Finished Reading Night's Dawn a 2nd Time!.......2007-08-19
I had read this trilogy way back in 2001. Back then I kind of felt the same way as others in regards to how the story concludes.
But after reading the entire trilogy a 2nd time, I have a new appreciation towards the author.
There are hints to how the story would conclude throughout the entire trilogy. I didn't realize that the first time reading it because I had read the books years apart. I read Reality Dysfunction in '97, Neutronium Alchemist in '99 and Naked God in '01. This time I read all three parts consecutively...it was a much more enjoyable read the second time around.
This is one of the most "complete" trilogies that I've ever read...except for the existence of the Dark Continuum. I wanted more of an explanation about that particular dimension and how the xenocs ended up there.
Other than that, I'm very satisfied with this author's work.
I plan on reading Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained very soon.
Take it easy...
Some great moments, but ultimately disappointing.......2007-08-16
--- There's some minor spoilers in this review so be warned. ---
There are some great moments in this massive trilogy, but unfortunately it has a very disappointing ending, major plot holes and mostly two dimensional characters. At the end Joshua Calvert is made out to be some kind of messiah (hint - he has the same initials as Jesus Christ) and waves a convenient magic wand to save the entire human race. This is the same guy who shags his future mother-in-law!
The other very annoying aspect of this trilogy is the compressed timeline. Since Louise is pregnant for most of the time, this means that the whole posession crisis, the near collapse of the Confederation, the Mortonridge Liberation, and everything else must happen in less than 9 months! Or maybe it's weeks, because the way Louise behaves and is treated by other characters it seems she is still in her first trimester. Given the massive scale of this epic, I would have found the story to be much more believable if it happened over the course of several years or even decades.
Although Hamilton's descriptions of Confederation technology is mostly believable, he makes space travel across the entire galaxy seem too easy, given that they were supposedly going into uncharted parts of the galaxy where no human has gone before. The voyage around the Nebula to the Tyrathca homeworld seemed like they were making a trip down to the local supermarket. I realise Joshua had anti-matter, but the voidhawk and hellhawks made the same trip without the help of anti-matter. You would think if it was that easy, and this form of space travel had been around for centuries, then humans would have explored more of the galaxy and made contact with more aliens (or xenocs as they're called here).
But probably the most infuriating part of the book comes when Quinn Dexter is taking control of London. You would think Charlie (ruler of Western Europe) would take this crisis a bit more seriously and treat it with some urgency. But no, he invites Louise over to his little bachelor pad (an 8 hour return drive) for a dinner party and a threesome. Only the next morning after they've recovered from their hangovers do they get around to talking about the problem at hand and come up with the brilliant idea of asking Fletcher for help (gee do you think?!).
Great Series.......2006-07-02
If you like hard edged space opera, you'll this! It's Star Wars for adults, with more original ideas and better writing.
Not just a deus ex machina..........2005-11-13
...but an extremely boring one. I had such high expectations for the climax of this outstanding series that I don't see how Hamilton could have met them, but in the end it felt like he didn't even try. Don't, however, let the last fifty pages of this novel keep you from enjoying the rest of the series. I thought it got off to a slow start but the "meat" of the story was thoroughly engrossing. I think Hamilton has also left the door open to a series following this and I hope he does follow up with the further adventures of humanity as it encounters more xenoc races.
Excellent Series, But Not For Everyone.......2005-02-25
There are six books in Peter F. Hamilton's "Night's Dawn" series:
- "The Reality Dysfunction - Part 1: Emergence,"
- "The Reality Dysfunction - Part 2: Expansion,"
- "The Neutronium Alchemist - Part 1: Consolidation,"
- "The Neutronium Alchemist - Part 2: Conflict,"
- "The Naked God - Part 1: Flight," and
- "The Naked God - Part 2: Faith."
Be warned: you CANNOT read these books individually. They are, essentially, chapters in one whopping great book. If you like the first book, then you'll have to read the other five books in order. There's no tie-up of any sort between any of the books. The publisher just broke the story up because it totals over 3,000 pages. If you pick up a book before you've read all the previous books (in order), put it down. It won't mean anything to you. Since these books are entirely dependent on each other, I'm writing this review on the series as a whole, not on the individual books.
This is one of the greatest science fiction sagas written. It ranks up there with David Brin's "Uplift Saga." It is literally a story of good vs evil and shows some of the potential (and pitfalls) of the human race. Over the years, I've read the whole series five times, and I still love it. I really only have two gripes with the book. First, and this is unavoidable in what Hamilton is doing, the evil in the series is definitely, graphically evil. This is not a book where the villain twists his mustache and laughs "nyah hah hah" as he forecloses on the orphanage or ties the heroine to the railroad tracks. The writing is fairly graphic in a lot of places. After five readings, this gets a bit wearing. My second gripe is one which somewhat limits the audience of the series (even more so than the evilness presented, and it's why I've given the series four stars instead of five): there's too much sex and the writing about it is too graphic. This is a problem with all of Hamilton's books, but it seems more prevalent in this series. Because of this, I wouldn't recommend the book for your children to read. But, as long as you're aware of that, I highly recommend the series and give it 4 stars out of five.
Book Description
Why does the modern-day search for romance so often end in disappointment– especially for women? Is it something women do? Something they don’t do? Are women missing important information about the opposite sex–or about themselves? Is there something wrong with them that they long so desperately for “’til death do us part”?
Sadly, many women today see their ongoing singleness as a weakness or lack of worth. In truth, women’s dreams go unfulfilled not because they do not deserve for them to come true, but often because of wrong assumptions–assumptions that can be corrected by learning a few key truths. In The Unspoken Rules of Love, authors Michelle McKinney Hammond and Joel Brooks seek to clear up these misperceptions, giving women the information they need to succeed in long-term, lasting male-female relationships and teaching them how to find satisfaction, value, and fulfillment in their relationship with God, both while they wait and after the wait is over.
Drawing on both the perspectives of its male and female authors, this book deals with the hard issues and the questions women ponder as they consider the dilemma of how to obtain lasting love. The Unspoken Rules of Love will help women adjust their desires, redefine what they are attracted to, set their values in order, and determine their goals–freeing them at last to pursue the loving relationships they desire.
Customer Reviews:
What's Love Got To Do With It?.......2007-06-17
Helped get me back on track. Would highly recommend this and ALL of Ms. Hammond's publication.
Necessary Lesson for the Millenium Woman.......2007-05-27
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I was impressed with the savvy, wisdom and wit of both writers. What an awesome combination of intellect, experience and just plain old truth. The short anecdotes offered quality reflection time and the honest assessment of the way women pursue men like food when one is hungry was ON POINT! I couldn't be happier with the sage advice, strong yet purposeful rebuke and sincere testimonies of both Joel and Michelle. I am quite a big fan of Michelle and I know that because of her writing I am a better suited female, willing to wait and work for Jesus both now and after my husband "finds me."
Advice for Single Women.......2007-05-26
I loved the encouraging and practical advice, based on the Scriptures.
Wonderful.......2007-01-10
I loved this book. You don't have to be single to benefit from this book. It is helping in my current marriage and this book is helping me to guide my daughters in relationships. My oldest daughter (22) bought it. I wish I had read this before marriage and remarriage. I also highly recommend Michelle's other book Get Over It and On With It!
Wow God is so on time!!!.......2006-08-02
i recently picked this book up at Mega fest.... i actally met the author and got it signed not knowing what to expcetd i started to read it on the plane ride home and it def change my mindset about my currently relationship i def recommend this book to EVERY WOMAN it will help u to understnad what u were blind too... im ending my relationship because God used this book to speak to me... i plan on reading it again and again until i can get the concepts down in my mind... praise the Lord for the way he uses other people when we are so blind to what we are doing ... enjoy this!!!!!
Books:
- Prime Obsession: Bernhard Riemann and the Greatest Unsolved Problem in Mathematics
- Redstripe and Other Dachshund Tales
- Relationships Can Be Murder
- Robert Ludlum's The Paris Option (A Covert-One Novel)
- Sacred Clowns (Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee Novels)
- Scarpetta's Winter Table
- Sea of Silver Light (Otherland, Volume 4)
- Shakespeare's Landlord (The First Lily Bard Mystery)
- Showcase Presents: Green Lantern, Vol. 1
- Something Rotten (Thursday Next Novels)
Books Index
Books Home
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The Temple Bombing
There Is No Me Without You: One Woman's Odyssey to Rescue Her Country's Children
The Rise of Southern Republicans
Ecology of a Cracker Childhood (World As Home, The)
Last Man Out: The Story of the Springhill Mine Disaster
