Living in the Country Growing Weird: A Deep Rural Adventure

Book Description

In 1972, Dennis Parks, a young potter with a promising academic career ahead of him, decided to move to Tuscarora, a near-abandoned mining town in remote northeastern Nevada. Parks and his wife were attracted to Tuscarora's isolation and beautiful setting, and they believed that it might be a healthy environment in which to raise their two small sons.

Living in the Country Growing Weird is Parks's account of his family's life in Tuscarora, a tiny settlement whose population even forty years later numbers fewer than twenty permanent residents. Parks created a pottery school that attracts students from around the world and developed for himself an international reputation as the creator of powerful, innovative works in clay. Meanwhile, he and his family had to master the numerous skills required of those who choose to live in the back country--growing and hunting their own food, renovating or building from scratch the structures they needed for residences or studios, resolving conflicts with neighbors, inventing their own amusements.

Living in the Country Growing Weird is an engaging and often amusing account of one family's move to a simpler life. As Dennis Parks reveals, the life that he and his family found in Tuscarora is also richer, infinitely more interesting, and profoundly more creative than what they left behind. This book is certain to delight admirers of Parks's pottery who want to learn about his environment and the inspiration of some of his work, but it will also fascinate any reader who has ever dreamed of relocating "far from the madding crowd" and living a simpler and more self-sufficient life. The complexities of life in Nevada's harshly beautiful and remote back country have never been depicted with such sensitivity, or with such good-humored candor.

Customer Reviews:

I loved this book.......2006-03-06

This was a great rural living memoir. I enjoyed the stories about the neighbors and the town's struggles, the different things that Parks learned about animals and plants, and the story of the success of the pottery school that he founded. He's on my list of people I'd like to meet!

Book Description

On December 14, 1944, Japanese soldiers massacred 139 of 150 American POWs. This biography tells the story of Glenn ("Mac") McDole, one of eleven young men who escaped and the last man out of Palawan Prison Camp 10A.

Beginning on December 8, 1941, at the U.S. Navy Yard barracks at Cavite, the story of this young Iowa marine continues through the fighting on Corregidor, the capture and imprisonment by the Japanese Imperial Army in May 1942, Mac's entry into the Palawan prison camp in the Philippines on August 12, 1942, the terrible conditions he and his comrades endured in the camps, and the terrible day when 139 young soldiers were slaughtered. The work details the escapes of the few survivors as they dug into refuse piles, hid in coral caves, and slogged through swamp and jungle to get to supportive Filipinos. It also contains an account and verdicts of the war crimes trials of the Japanese guards, follow-ups on the various places and people referred to in the text, with descriptions of their present situations, and a roster of the names and hometowns of the victims of the Palawan massacre.

Customer Reviews:

Great material for National History Day.......2007-03-07

This book was very good even though it tells a terrible story. There is a lot of detail about massacre of 139 American prisoners of war and the survival of just 11 as they hid in garbage and swam 5 miles in the ocean to safety. This is a great source for a national history day project. This book would be 6 stars if that rating existed.

Must Read Book.......2005-10-31

This book should be required reading for every high school student in America - most people have no idea what many ordinary young men endured as prisoners during World War II, how they behaved under the unbelievable burden of watching their friends die and how they overcame the horror of being POWs of the Japanese in the Philippines - this book is extremely well-written, simple and concise without self promotion concerning one of the worst atrocities in modern warfare - it's an easy although uncomfortable read - it'll make you proud to call McDole and other POWs fellow Americans

This should allways be a reminder of our fathers sacrifices.......2005-07-16

I could not put it down. I really liked the book. I meet Mr. McDole and his wife this last June. What an amazing family and how he over came tragidy.

A Great Story of a Survivor.......2005-03-29

This is a great story of a survivor who makes it and also the story of others who perish. All of whom are heroes under conditions we hope will never again be faced by POW's. This book tells the story of their sacrifice which should never be forgotten.

A True Incident, A Lesson for All Time.......2004-12-01

One of the good stories to come out of World War II was the rescue of over 500 American prisoners at the CABANATUAN MILITARY PRISON CAMP. If you are not familiar with the story, 123 members of the 6th Rangers sneaked through enemy lines to the prison camp, killed all the guards and got the men out.

It was not common for such break outs to be attempted. And the reason for the rescue at Cabanatuan was the massacre at Palawan.

Palawan was an offshoot of Cabanatuan, some 150 prisoners from Cabanatuan had been sent to Palawan as slave workers. They spent two and a half years working on the air strip. Then on December 15, 1944 the Americans landed on Mindoro. So the Japanese decided to execute the 150 prisoners. They missed eleven who managed to escape.

This is the story of one young marine. From all the people in the USMC he bacame one of the 7,000 Americans captured at Corregidor, and one of the eleven to survive Palawan.

As I read this book, my first thought was to damn the Japanese. Their culture of Bushido created an environment where such events happened. Then I thought of the Islamic terrorists, or cult or whatever you'd call it in Iraq who yesterday beheaded someone just to get it in the news. And that lead me to the events in the prison in Iraq where we Americans didn't exactly act with honor.

This is a book, not only excellently written, but tells of a side of the war not often reported. And forces you to think of other places, other incidents. Highly recommended.

Last Man Out: The Story of the Springhill Mine Disaster

Average customer rating:

A must read book!
Completely factual, based on tapes & interviews!
A whole lot more that a survival story!
Disappointed - written as "soap opera non-fiction"
Needs editing!

Last Man Out: The Story of the Springhill Mine Disaster
Melissa Fay Greene
Manufacturer: Harvest Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 015602957X

Amazon.com

On October 23, 1958, gases from deep within the earth shot skyward, causing entire floors of rock to rise instantly in a coal mine in Springhill, Nova Scotia, trapping 174 men underground. Seventy-five miners never made it out alive. Miraculously, two small groups of miners survived the initial "bump" but were sealed in small caverns deep within the coal. Surrounded by foul air and total darkness, and with precious little food and water, the men vacillated between optimism and hopelessness as they tried to maintain sanity amidst horrific conditions. Above them, fellow miners and rescue workers dug desperately to get them out, clinging to the unwritten Miner's Code that no man shall be left behind. After a week of digging and with hope all but exhausted, they found one group of a dozen miners; a day later seven more men were discovered. Melissa Fay Greene describes this harrowing ordeal in sharp detail, effectively capturing the drama of the event for both the miners trapped below and their distraught families waiting above.

Placing the event into a larger context, Greene describes how it became the first nationally televised disaster, as journalists from all over Canada and the U.S. converged on the small town and camped at the entrance of the mine. After their rescue, the men were the center of media attention, and some of them became instant celebrities (one was chosen as Canada's "Citizen of the Year"; another became a spokesman for 7-Up soda). She also details the bizarre episode in which an assistant to the governor of Georgia tried to spin the disaster into a marketing gimmick to promote tourism. To the segregationist governor's chagrin, one of the rescued miners turned out to be black, presenting him with a potential public relations nightmare. Though her use of fictionalized dialogue between the miners is sometimes distracting, Greene's extensive research brings this remarkable story to life, making Last Man Out an absorbing re-creation of a forgotten episode. --Shawn Carkonen

Book Description

One evening in late October 1958, the deepest coal mine in North America "bumped"-its rock floors heaved up and smashed into rock ceilings. Most of the men on the shift perished. But nineteen men were trapped alive a mile below the earth's surface, struggling to survive without food, water, light, or fresh air. Almost a week passed without rescue. Hopes of finding life dwindled; then a miracle happened: Rescuers stumbled across a broken pipe that led to the cave of survivors. In the media circus that followed, the survivors' endurance was mythologized and twisted, and the state of Georgia's tourism ploy-inviting the survivors to recuperate on a Georgia beach-turned racist and pitted the miners against each other.

Using long-lost stories and interviews with survivors, Greene has reconstructed an extraordinary drama of their struggle and miraculous rescue.

Customer Reviews:

A must read book!.......2007-09-21

The writer of this book does such a good job in painting the picture of lives of these in this book about life and the dangers of coal mining!

Completely factual, based on tapes & interviews!.......2006-05-07

This is a great book. Many of these reviewers made an assumption and assertion that the author created the dialogue and thoughts. Those reviewers are wrong. The author interviewed survivors and, more importantly, listened to hours of detailed interviews with the survivors recorded immediately after the rescue and in the following years. From the author: "This book is nonfiction. I did not make up these words, scenes, or stories. They are events I learned from the voices of survivors, and I have tried my best to retell them using the same words."

A whole lot more that a survival story!.......2004-03-25

The basic facts of this book's content - the event surrounding the Spring Hill Mine rescue have been covered in other reviews and I will not waste time rehashing them yet again. Instead I would like to focus upon the less obvious gems within this book that in my opinion transend the amzing story of survival.

Melissa Green takes the reader on a journey not just into a coal mine, but into life in this working class town in 1958. The families, the marriages and the race relations all form a familiar image for those who like myself lived in or near the same time frame(in my case as a child) except that this book provided me an understanding of my parent's world. While my father wasn't a miner or ever a manual laborer nevertheless the men of the mine matched up with faces and families of those I grew up with in a world long lost to history. Of solid men who took care of their families, saved, and yet know how to have fun.

Beyond that personal appeal the medium of the story takes us with the trapped men and allows us to expereince their empotions. Somehow inspite of the fact we know it is coming the disaster seems as fresh and unexpected as it was to the men who also knew that some day there would be the "big one" and prayed they wouldn't be inside when it happened.

The aftermath leaves the reader choking on coal dust and shaken by the sight of crushed men whom they have just gotten to know. Unlike some writers the author doesn't pretty it up and the all the horror and mental trauma of the men is ours to share. We also share through the men's thoughts, thoughts of children and the future they now realize they will never see, thoughts of wives whom they will never hold and the constant and never ending question of what will it be like when death comes? Like so many of us who take life's little pleasures for granted, this disaster brings into focus for these trapped and dying men the value of those things and people they took for granted.

Lie in the coal black mine on a bed of broken rock while thirst unlike anything you have ever known treatens to drive you out of your mind. Realize your pants can't stay up because you've lost so much weight and understand that you can't last, can't live much longer. Then return to thoughts of your parched throat that feels as if it is filled with a splintery wooden stake that keeps "being twisted and twisted."

A harrowing and personal experience. Well done! Well done indeed!

Disappointed - written as "soap opera non-fiction".......2003-12-22

There seems to be a new writing style out there that is a cross between fiction and non-fiction (not faction), so let's call this style "soap opera non-fiction". That's where an author takes a historical event, and trys to write it like a "soap opera". The last two books I've bought have done this. I guess the object is to make the book appealling to more readers and therefore make more money.

This was a fascinating story that could have been better told if it was written from a documentary or historical perspective. I wanted to learn something, not read a made-for-TV movie.

I still don't know how the Governor of Georgia and his exploits fits in this story? That is a bizzare and dis-jointed side-story. She somehow tried to tie-in perceived racial incidents surrounding this tradgedy.

I was dissappointed in this book.

Needs editing!.......2003-10-24

This is really two stories, the Springhill mine disaster and the political exploitation of the survivors. Oddly, the latter is more absorbing. The account of the mine disaster could have used a stronger editorial hand. There are a great many characters introduced at the beginning of the book, but the discriptions tended to be repetitive so that they were not well delineated. There were a few copy errors that should have been caught (a spring night in October; the maple leaf flag being raised several years before it was created....) Worst was the purple prose. The author seems addicted to similies, often using at least one in each paragraph, and many were so strained that they broke the flow of the narrative. If you remember the old comic strip "Our Boarding House," you will understand what I mean. Fortunately the writing improves as the book goes on, but this 280 page book would have been better if it had been boiled down to 200 pages.

Marlboro Cook Like a Man Cookbook {the last male art form} Grill it, Smoke It, BBQ The Heck Out of It.

Average customer rating:

Marlboro Cook Like a Man Cookbook {the last male art form} Grill it, Smoke It, BBQ The Heck Out of It.

Manufacturer: Philip Morris USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Spiral-bound
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ASIN: B000AMAYOK

Last Man Out: A Personal Account of the Vietnam War

Average customer rating:

Last Man Out: A Personal Account of the Vietnam War
Essential Reading
Superior
A true accounting of his time in the military!
Excellent Personal Vietnam War Account

Last Man Out: A Personal Account of the Vietnam War
Jr. James E. Parker
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0804119414
Release Date: 2000-05-02

Book Description

"I WAS AMONG THE FIRST MEN IN,
AND I WAS THE LAST MAN OUT."

In Vietnam, at both the start and finish of the conflict, 2d Lt. James E. Parker Jr. saw the war as few men did. Now, with uncommon insight and raw honesty, he captures the stark realities of jungle combat, heavy casualties, and heroic sacrifice. From the tight confines of a VC-occupied Cu Chi tunnel to bloody firefights in areas that hardcore VC and NVA vets had controlled for decades, Parker relives the rain, the heat, the horror, the pain--and the anguish of kneeling beside a buddy whose blood turnd the soil black as he lays dying. Vietnam exacted a very high price. Parker pays tribute to the men who paid it.

Customer Reviews:

Last Man Out: A Personal Account of the Vietnam War.......2007-01-22

Easy reading, fast-paced action, pithy, incisive commentary. Does not dwell on brutal details. James Parker presents the Vietnam war from the inside--not a pretty picture but a very good book from an author who is a gifted writer into the bargain.

Essential Reading.......2001-08-14

From the humorous to the horrific...from tragedy to triumph...and a somber assessment of what really happened in Southeast Asia, this short and powerful book is essential reading for those considering work in the patriotic service.

Superior.......2001-07-09

I borrowed this book from a friend at Airborne School this past May, and tore through it in about three days. What a great read! It's so entertaining and gripping, I kept checking the inside flap of the book to make sure it wasn't fiction.

More than just a war story, this is more or less a biography of James Parker. Since the Vietnam conflict was so lengthy and controversial, it's worthwhile to see how it affected his life after James left combat. This is a guy who saw it all: he hit the beach in knee deep water in the early years, and was one of the last CIA guys to leave the island nation years after the U.S. had abandoned the country militarily.

The best features of this book are James' crystal clear recollections of his war buddies and his involvment in the CIA effort. What other book out there has a detailed personal account of the positively heroic efforts of the secret combat operations after the Army left? Also excellent is James' tense telling of a huge operation to lure the VC into attacking a dummy convoy.

This is a man who has done it all. If you're interested in the Vietnam War, this is requred reading.

A true accounting of his time in the military!.......2001-02-03

Last Man Out: A Personal Account of the Vietnam War by James E. Parker, Jr. is the best book I've read in a long time. If this author didn't have a tape recorder or a diary that he wrote in everyday then I have to say he has a most remarkable memory. James takes the reader back to his home in North Carolina and introduces his family and friends. He continues as he makes the decision to enlist in the Army at a time when others were already doing everything they could to avoid serving their country. The reader goes through Basic Training with James and his buddies at Fort Gordon, Georgia in February 1964. Two months later after being named "Outstanding Trainee" James reiterates some of his time while at his Advanced Infantry Training. You are there when he signs up for Officer Candidate School and while he waited to be selected. You go through that six-month course with him too beginning in November at Fort Benning, Georgia. Upon graduation James goes to Jump School. From there the book gets even better. James first Permanent Party duty station was at Fort Riley, Kansas with the 1st Infantry Division. Then through his Tour of Duty in Vietnam. James told about an encounter with General William Westmoreland following a mission. The general flew in to review the troops, present medals and then was gone. It was a mere media event. When the general departed, another officer walked the line and took back the medals. After Nam James next assignment took him to Fort Ord in Monterey, California. He became the Officer-in-Charge of the 6th Army Area Drill Sergeant School. It was a great assignment. BUT James was thinking about leaving the Army but he "felt guilty about forsaking my duty, abandoning my obligation to country at a time of war." Unable to find a job that suited him he applied for and was accepted as a member of the Central Intelligence Agency. By September 1971 James was headed back to Southeast Asia "as a case officer in the Lao program, the CIA's largest covert operation." James was involved with several operations before heading stateside in 1973. He spoke openly about them. By January 1975 James was the only American left in Vi Thanh province. At that point he secured himself a "bodyguard." James wrote of the fall of Ban Me Thout, Hue, Da Nang, and Saigon. He took part in the evacuation of the Vietnamese who worked as agents for the CIA. He spoke of the problems encountered onboard the USS Vancouver and the transfer to the USNS Pioneer Contender. James Parker Jr. wrote an incredible account of his military and civilian service to our country and the people of South Vietnam. It is a book well worth reading. I'm glad I had the opportunity to meet the author in person in 1998. AND I'm glad I took the time to read his book. You will be also.

Excellent Personal Vietnam War Account.......2001-01-27

If my son were to enter the service, I would require him to read Mr Parker's book. The details of how to survive Army life are staight forward and important. I found the book easy and enjoyable to read. Could not put it down. As with any super book, I often found myself looking at the number of pages left to read-the more the merrier. Mr. Parker has truely made something of himself and the people of the United States have reaped the benefits. Thank you Mr. Parker.

Last Man Out: Surviving the Burma-Thailand Death Railway: A Memoir

Average customer rating:

Read this and be enriched and humbled.

Last Man Out: Surviving the Burma-Thailand Death Railway: A Memoir
H. Robert Charles
Manufacturer: Zenith Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 076032820X

Book Description

During a 14-month period in World War II Burma, over 100,000 Allied POWs, who had been forced into slave labor by the Japanese, died building the Burma-Thailand Death Railway, an undertaking immortalized in The Bridge on the River Kwai. One of the fortunate few who survived was American H. Robert Charles, who describes the ordeal in vivid and harrowing detail in this book. Recounting an experience of almost unimaginable barbarity, Charles also tells a tale of heroism, the story of Henri Hekking, a Dutch Colonial Army doctor. Dr. Hekkings knowledge of the medicinal value of wild jungle herbs, combined with his remarkable courage and skill, saved the lives of hundreds of his fellow POWs, including the author.

Customer Reviews:

Read this and be enriched and humbled........2006-12-17

I have had the pleasure of knowing the author for going on 8 years now. His memoir of his time as a prisoner of the Japanese, building the Death Railroad, the real Bridge on the River Kwai, is riveting, and sadly the suffering of POWs is little known.

In the decades since returning from the War, the author has had a distinguished career requiring excellent writing and editing skills, and this book reflects that. It's an easy read, and when you've finished it, you will most likely re-evaluate the struggles and low points of your daily routine.

Lastly, the man who is the subject of the book, Dr. Henri Hekking of the Dutch Colonial Army, will instill in you a sense of awe in the medical skills he learned from native Javanese sources, and how these skills, scorned by English and American doctors, saved *so many* of the men under his care, the author included.

This book adds greatly to, and dovetails with, Hornfisher's latest, and compliments Winslow's "Galloping Ghost...".

The Original Cook Like a Man Cookbook (The Last Male Art Form, Grill It, Smoke It, BBQ the Heck Out of It)

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The Original Cook Like a Man Cookbook (The Last Male Art Form, Grill It, Smoke It, BBQ the Heck Out of It)

Manufacturer: Tabasco
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Spiral-bound
ASIN: B000COBRP6

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Marlboro: Cook Like a Man Cookbook-The Last Male Art Form-Grill it. Smoke it. BBQ the Heck out of It.

Manufacturer: Marlboro Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Spiral-bound
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ASIN: B000EEEX82

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First Man Out-Last Man Standing
Karen Simmons
Manufacturer: Xulon Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1594678111

LAST MAN OUT/PERSONAL ACCOUNT OF THE VIETNAM WAR

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LAST MAN OUT/PERSONAL ACCOUNT OF THE VIETNAM WAR
James F Parker
Manufacturer: Ballentine Publishing Group
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 0739411195

5 Double Titles By Queen - Cop Out/last Woman in His Life - Ten Days' Wonder/king Is Dead - Dragon's Teeth/calamity Town - Origin of Evil/there Was an Old Woman - Dead Man's Tale/ Death Spins the Platter

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5 Double Titles By Queen - Cop Out/last Woman in His Life - Ten Days' Wonder/king Is Dead - Dragon's Teeth/calamity Town - Origin of Evil/there Was an Old Woman - Dead Man's Tale/ Death Spins the Platter
Ellery Queen
Manufacturer: various
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: B000MUOLHG

Product Description

5 Double novels. Two Titles in each. By Ellery Queen - Cop Out/last Woman in His Life - Ten Days' Wonder/king Is Dead - Dragon's Teeth/calamity Town - Origin of Evil/there Was an Old Woman - Dead Man's Tale/ Death Spins the Platter

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