No comments about William W. Warren: The Life, Letters, and Times of an Ojibwe Leader (American Indian Lives).

3 comments about Fearless Presence: The Story of Lt. Col. Nola Forrest, Who Led the Army Nurses Through Heat, Rain, Mud, and Enemy Fire in World War II.

1. In the history of great women soldiers, the biography of Lt.Col. Nola Forrest is a MUST read. It is the incredible true story of a tough, determined and resourceful woman leader, who knew how to get things done in the midst of combat operations. Eleanor Stoddard, a former writer for Time magazine and US News and World Report, has crafted a well-researched and fascinating story of Lt. Col. Forrest's experiences, along with that of registered nurses of her generation. I highly recommend this book not only to military women and nurses, but also to anyone interested in what talented women can accomplish under extremely difficult circumstances. -- Col. Jo Rusin, US Army Ret., author of Move to the Front: Leadership Secrets from a Woman Soldier



2. The reader is provided with a compelling story ... [which] can foster a sense of pride in the dedication and accomplishments of Army nurses ... as a personal note, the reviewer highly recommends this inspirational book.
   
   -- LTC Larry Moss, reviewer for The Connection



3. Reviewed by A.J. Cooper for Reader Views (2/07)
   
   "Fearless Presence" is a story of World War II and the years just prior to the war from the view of a nurse, Nola Forrest. She was born in Minnesota but wanted so much more than to stay there. Nola Forrest wanted the opportunity to travel and see the world. She was given the opportunity while in college; she was recruited to go to nursing school against the wishes of her family. They felt it would be a terribly hard life that she was not accustomed to and tried everything in their powers to dissuade her from the path of nursing.
   
   The beginning of Nola's career with the army was when she entered the Army Nurse Corps Reserve in 1924. The nurses' had the same ranks as their male counter parts but received much lower pay. This did not stop Nola from taking the position. The story follows Nola all over the United States and abroad highlighting many of the positions she held in nursing and in administering nurses. Nola is also given a permanent position in the Army Nurse Corps and finally in 1942 the ranks of the woman and men in the Army are equal pay. She was sent to the Southwest Pacific Area to oversee operations and to ensure nurses taken care of properly. What she found was nurses trying to perform their duties in less than manageable circumstances with little or no personal supplies in most areas. During this time period nurses were taken as Prisoners of War in one of history's worst camps in the Philippines, Bataan and Corregidor.
   
   I think anyone that has an interest in history would be interested in this book. Learning of the nurses taken as Prisoners of War was shocking to me. I only remember hearing about all of the men interned but certainly not the women. I took for granted that nurses had always been a part of wars and did not realize that for years nurses did not play an important part at the war fronts to help save the troops. Because of World War II it was shown that women nurses could survive and perform just as well as the men at the front under terrible conditions. They faced diseases that soldiers had not faced before and did everything in their power to ensure every soldier was taken care of.
   
   I really enjoyed this book and was glad that I had the opportunity to not only learn something new, but to learn about an admirable person, Lt. Col. Nola Forrest. She led a full and rewarding life and it took a considerate person to take the time to research and follow-up with the Colonel. I would recommend "Fearless Presence" to anyone and look forward to sharing it with family and friends. This is not only a story of a determined person but a very determined woman who really cared about everyone around her.

5 comments about Love Always, Patsy: Patsy Cline's Letters to a Friend.

1. 
   My title is part of the inscription her husband Charlie had placed on Patsy's grave marker.Time has shown that truer words have never been said.
   All the letters in this book were written to Treva Steinbicker who started and operated her fan club.They corresponded very frequently from the time that Patsy started in the business in 1955 when she was was only 23.The letters continued till 1959.There may have been more and Treva probably continued until she was killed in a car accident in 1960;but no letters were found during that period. Patsy met her untimely death in a plane crash on March 5,1963.
   More than anything else,these letters show what a huge struggle and sacrifice to health,family and security the artists of the 50's went through in establishing a career.The number of Country Artists ,who made a living,were only a few dozen,and it took many years to make it.However,the music they made came from the heart and soul and was so good because they really lived it.Today new superstars appear like autumn leaves,and in my opinion most of it is "studio" music and that which the Industry promotes.It is hihhly that the stoff promoted today will be enduring like that which we got from the artists of Patsy's time.
   Try as they may,to replace Country Music with Pop,Rhinestone Cowboy stuff,Country Rock,New Country,Line Dance music,the music of the Legends like Patsy,Hank Williams,Web Pierce,Johnny Horton,Roy Acuff,Ernest Tubb,Loretta Lynn,and other artists of the 50's and 60's,the real Country music survives because of the simplr fact that Country Music is the music of the people,by the people and for the people---Not the music establishment and studios.
   The thing that surprisedme the most is how little these artists were compensated These letters show that during the time Patsy made her greatest hits,she virtually lived in poverty.Just imagine how moch people who couldn't write a simple ditty or even carry a tune,made off Patsy.



2. Thank you Mike and Cindy for sharing the personal letters of Patsy Cline with all of us. What better way to get to know someone, then to peek into their letters written to someone very special. Not only are the words that she writes very intimate and from the heart, but the paper they are witten on and the way they are written(phrasing and penmanship) give you insight into Patsy's feelings and personality. Since reading this great book, I have become an REAL Patsy Cline fan.



3. If you are looking for a book that tries to analyze Patsy Cline from a woman's perspective, read Margaret Jones' biography. If you want dirt and hack writing, read Ellis Nassour. But if you want to know Patsy Cline, read this book. Patsy wrote it herself with a guiding hand from Mike and Cindy. Patsy tells us in her own words what kind of a woman she is and she shares her dreams and disappointments in a way no other writer can touch.

   Mike and Cindy let Patsy tell the story, intruding long enough to clarify a point or identify an obscure reference.




4. I found, Love Always, Patsy to be quite compelling. I wasn't reading about Patsy Cline the superstar but "Patsy" the young girl working her way up. To be able to do that in her own words left me with a special warmth for the person and all she hoped to achieve. To spend time recapturing a "lost" time in the business of music. A more simple time. I would recommend this book not only to Patsy Cline fans but anyone interested in music, life, biographies, or a hard working housewife.



5. I am the secretary for the Always Patsy Cline Fan Organization and I have to say, I'm pretty picky about my Patsy Cline merchandise, info., etc.

   This book was so interesting to me because you really found out who Patsy was. She struggled just like the rest of us. It blew me away at how tight things were for her. Although times were tough, she kept going to make her dreams come true.

   You could really tell how much she loved Charlie and her new daughter, Julie. Randy wasn't born yet.

   It was really easy to read and I couldn't put it down. It's a real treasure to have something like this about someone we don't know much about, because of how short of a time she was with us.

   If you are in any way a fan of Patsy Cline, this is a must read for you. It also contains a few new photos.

   Enjoy!

2 comments about Out of the Wilderness: The Civil War Memoir of Corporal Norton C. Shepard 146th New York Volunteer Infantry.

1. 
   Cpl. Norton C. Shepard was the fifth member of his family to enlist in the Union Army. He was in the 146th New York Volunteer Infantry also known as the Fifth Oneida, or Garrards Zouaves. At the Battle of the Wilderness he was wounded in the right shoulder, right side, and through the right elbow joint, breaking the bone and shattering the joint. He was left in this condition behind enemy lines.
   The story that follows tells of his conversations and interactions with the Rebels as well as his incredible survival. It is filled with details of his experience and makes for a great read.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   



2. This is one of the best narratives of a common Civil War soldier's experiences in battle that I've ever read. Shepard was a member of the 146th New York Volunteer Infantry, also know as Garrard's Zouaves or the Fifth Oneida. Shepard was one of the many casualties the 146th suffered in Saunder's Field on the first day of the Battle of the Wilderness. He recounts not only the battle, but his wounding and being taken prisoner. When I visited the Wilderness battlefield I took the book with me and re-read it as I literally walked in Shepard's footsteps on the very site where most of the narrative takes place.

No comments about Military Reminiscences of the Civil War.

1 comments about The Adventures of Big-Foot Wallace.

1. Big-Foot Wallace is a true Texas icon. He was on the famous Miers Expedition which explored West Texas. He also served as one of the original Texas Rangers. The reader does't know if what he reads in the story actually happend. Much of if did, but Duval added some stories to make it a better yarn. The humor is dry and understated fitting with typical West Texas sensiblity.

No comments about Alexander Graham Bell: Life of an Inventive Man (Biography).

No comments about The Defense of Vicksburg: A Louisiana Chronicle (Texas a & M University Military History Series, 90).

5 comments about The Beat Hotel: Ginsberg, Burroughs & Corso in Paris, 1957-1963.

1. The goings on in this decrepit old Paris Hotel, run by an old French lady who cooked Cassoulets for the guests, were astounding. A gathering point for starving artists, especially planetary beatniks, we discover that the unbridled use of hard drugs and graphic homosexuality were a lot more common than Eisenhower would have let us in America think! *.*
   
   This book is a hoot but I want to say up front that it was seriously well-researched by the author. It's predominantly about some well-known, perhaps infamous, American Beats, most of whom (in this hotel anyway) were bisexual drug users. There were also other 'artists' from various places in the world who either lived in The Beat Hotel (the hotel really didn't even have an official name), or they 'visited' as guests of residents for varying lengths of time.
   
   The peccadillos of these characters defy sanity. There's scrying, crying, heroin use, singing, pornography generation, speculating on psychedelic inventions, poetry readings, and tons of all manner of sex.
   
   William Burroughs seems to be the main guy in this life adventure -- we hear of the untimely death of his wife (at another location) as Burroughs was smashed, playing "William Tell" with her for the entertainment of the equally drunken and high guests, ultimately putting a bullet in her forehead. He was never arrested for this incident.
   
   The chief guy whom we expect to find lodged firmly in The Beat Hotel never made it: Jack Kerouac. But pretty much every one of his dubious associates made at least a visit.
   
   This book is well-written -- a real page-turner and quite hilarious. It matters not if the reader is gay, straight, or anywhere in-between sexually... you'll much enjoy this book. And, if ever there was a clear example of 'truth being stranger than fiction', this one is it.



2. Really, I do. The book is in-depth and includes pertinent photos. The cut-ups and Gysin's paintings, as well as the total exploratory consciousness mindmeld attitude in inspiring. Barry Miles has once again succeeded in writing another great book on the Beats.



3. Perhaps 9, rue Git-le-Coeur will never be one of those addresses that everyone immediately recognizes. Yet, for a brief period of time, it was home to Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, Peter Orlovsky, Brian Gysin, and was infamously known as The Beat Hotel.

   "The Beat Hotel" serves as an extended biographical sketch, presenting detailed glimpses into the histories of these artists - Burroughs' accidental shooting of his wife, his intense love affair with Ian Sommerville, Ginsberg's problematic relationship with his mentally ill mother, the "Howl" obscenity trials, his affairs with Burroughs, Kerouac and Orlavsky.

   What results is an often frank, always engaging depiction of the drugged out, free-loving world that produced such classic as Burroughs' "Naked Lunch" and Ginsberg's "Kaddish."

   It's to the author's credit that he achieves and exceeds his goal of increasing the reader's appreciation of these often neglected rebel artists.




4. Like, baby, I am not a big fan of the beats, dig? I was too young for it - it was dead by the time I was aware of it. And in hindsight it seems so self-indulgent.

   But.

   This book is really great. I lived in Paris for a spell, not far from said hotel (though it was long gone) and this is wonderfully interesting chronicle of ex pat life in Paris during the late 50s, early 60s, a bunch of fabulously interesting characters - reminiscent of Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London (or whatever it was called) which was pretty darn clever (and if you like this, you have to read that.)




5. The first time I read this book, I turned back over to the first page and read it again. It was that good. I am a huge Burroughs fan, and I learned a new appreciation for Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso and Brion Gysin. The grist of this book provides insight into the day-to-day maze of creativity whose epicenter happened to be Post WWII Paris. If you are looking for a fresh, lively, intelligent glimpse into the creative process of Burroughs, Gysin, Corso, Ginsberg and others, this is the book for you.

No comments about Henry Hughes and Proslavery Thought in the Old South (Southern Biography Series).