Phineas Poe: Kiss Me Judas, Penny Dreadful, Hell's Half Acre

Average customer rating:

Decent, entertaining, but

Devastating Beauty

The Phineas Poe collection is a winner

Strange happenings...

Not Bad, Not Brilliant

Phineas Poe: Kiss Me Judas, Penny Dreadful, Hell's Half Acre
Will Christopher Baer
Manufacturer: MacAdam/Cage Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 159692151X

Book Description

There's a girl in the hotel lobby. Long legs in a red dress. Scar at the edge of her mouth, body like a knife. I buy her a drink and wake up with staples in my side. "Don't worry," she says. "You only need one."

Disgraced junkie cop turned apocalyptic antihero Phineas Poe emerges from a psych ward on Christmas Eve and tumbles for beautiful predatory Jude, streetwise assassin turned organ thief. After one night together, she cuts him open, leaves him to fate. Reborn in a bath of ice, Phineas tracks Jude from the back alleys of Denver across the Texas desert for a violent showdown that leaves them on the run to Mexico and the debauched playgrounds of California's elite. Descend into a nightmare realm where every act of perversion finds willing disciples. Enter a world of brutal blood sport, murderous role play, existential snuff films. Lines between victim and accomplice blur past recognition only to be redrawn according to violent whim. The myth of Orpheus is deconstructed on a razorblade as Phineas and Jude chase each other through a hell of their own making.

PHINEAS POE is equal parts noir romance, revenge fantasy, suicide pact, urban myth exploded, and nihilistic tragedy.

Customer Reviews:

Decent, entertaining, but .......2007-08-16

As the back cover of the book states, these three novels read like a feverish dream. The writing doesn't include typical grammar structure like quotation marks but instead flows very smoothly as if from another world. There is rampant drug/alcohol usage which sometimes makes things seem a little depressing, but otherwise the stories are entertaining.

Overall, the book is an easy read. It's entertaining but not altogether fulfilling. Hell's Half Acre was probably the best, mainly because it made some sort of sense. The characters from the first two novels didn't really seem to be based in any kind of coherent reality.

Just my .02. I walked away after finishing the book saying "What was the point?"

Devastating Beauty.......2007-07-15

There are some authors who, when you read them, can crush your confidence in your own writing. They are so perfectly in control of their craft, their prose so utterly devastating in its perfect beauty, that you put down the book and say, "Well, crap. I'll never be THAT good." Will Christopher Baer is one such author.

That his prose is not only beautiful, but can also be dark, witty, and down right violent, only heightens the pleasure for me.

There are sentences in this collection that will make a fellow writer stop to catch their breath. It's the equivalent of going to MoMA and standing in front of a masterpiece.

I await Godspeed with the utmost of anticipation.

The Phineas Poe collection is a winner.......2007-05-10

I found all three books fun to read, intellectually fascinating, and a bit addictive. A must read for any noir fan, and an intrigue for any reader. Unusual storyline, characters, and plot twists. Will Baer has a unique writing style that adds to the flavor of the novels. Excellent service on the part of Amazon, aswell.

Strange happenings..........2007-02-20

So Phineas is an ex-cop turned junkie because someone took his liver. Weird plot, weird stories. The collection is of all 3 Phineas Poe novels by Will Christopher Baer. While I personally am not into the somewhat graphic sex scenes, they make things a little more interesting at times. If you're into crime, sex, drugs, and having your kidney cut out, along with going into a strange world of sex and overall oddities, check this out. It's a good read through and through.

Not Bad, Not Brilliant.......2007-02-06

I thought this book was going to be phenominal. And, to be fair, it started out with just the right amount of dark atmosphere and stylistic flair that I thought this book would surely be a must read. Unfortunately, after the excitement of Baer's words wear off, there isn't much actual plot to come by in this novel. Furthermore, whatever plot can be found is sometimes unexciting and hard to follow, allbeit interesting. I can say I'd recommend the first of this trilogy, Kiss Me Judas, to almost anybody, what with it's pinache and storyline. Both of these elements remain new and fresh throughout the whole book, and are the strongest they feel throughout all three of Baer's novels. However, once you get two books deep, his style and often insane plots feel more worn out than new and exciting.

Average customer rating:

Another great Savannah Reid mystery

Not What I Was Expecting, But Good Anyway

I love this series!!!

Southern Hospitality in California

Great series!!!!!
Cooked Goose (Savannah Reid Mysteries)
G.A. McKevett
Manufacturer: Kensington
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Women Sleuths | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
McKevett, G.A. | ( M ) | Authors, A-Z | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
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Sour Grapes: A Savannah Reid Mystery (Savannah Reid Mysteries)

ASIN: 0758202059

Amazon.com

Savannah Reid is a large woman--with appetites, emotions, and attitudes to match. She loves to cook, eat, fight, and catch criminals. In G.A. McKevett's fourth book about her, Reid is working as a private investigator after being fired from the police force in the fictional California seaside town of San Carmelita. She's hired by a shopping mall to catch the "Santa Rapist," a man wearing a fake white beard who has attacked several women in the mall's parking lot. The first suspect who she disables with a hard kick to the Christmas ornaments turns out to be a legitimate store Santa helping out one of Reid's associates. The investigation goes downhill from there.

Margie Bloss, the teenaged daughter of the obnoxious police chief who fired Reid, is a student in a self-defense class that Savannah teaches. When Margie is herself attacked and some of the town's cops begin to die, the focus of Reid's investigation switches to someone involved in law enforcement. The solution is no big surprise, but Reid herself is a colorful enough character to carry us along--especially when she adds tasty recipes to her bag of tricks. Other Reid stories in paperback include Just Desserts and Killer Calories. --Dick Adler

Customer Reviews:

Another great Savannah Reid mystery.......2005-06-26

A rapist who's MO is dressing up like Santa Claus, complete with the red hat and white beard is on the loose and it's up to Savannah & Dirk to catch him before he strikes again.

Savannah moonlights by teaching a self defense class at the local library to women about hot to protect themselves. Did you know that we are the most vunerable when getting in/out of cars? So..be prepared at all times!

Cooked Goose sneaks into the criminal mind as the reader experiences the thought process of the insane. He thinks that he is incincible and will never get caught.

He should never underestimate the smart, fun loving, chocoholic
eating PI that I have comed to adore ~ Savannah Reid.

Not What I Was Expecting, But Good Anyway.......2003-12-17

The town of San Carmelita is trying to get into the holiday spirit, but someone has taken things too far. The mall parking lots are being stalked by the Santa Rapist. PI Savannah Reid has been asked by her friend, detective Dirk Coulter, to help nab this jerk before he ruins the town's Christmas celebration. There are very few leads to go on until one smart kid manages to get away. Now Savannah is asked to keep the girl safe, getting her mixed up in a family she'd rather avoid. The stakes are raised when a shooting occurs. But is it connected with the case?

Normally, I read series in order, but a friend had sent me this book and I thought it'd be fun to read a mystery set around Christmas time this month. This book wasn't quite what I was expecting. From the title of this and others in the series, I was expecting a light, cozy type book. Obviously, I hadn't read the back cover. This book is much darker then what I normally read. In fact, I almost quite when I realized what I'd gotten myself into. I hate to quit on books, however, and I'm glad I persevered.

The story works on several different levels, with sub-plots to keep you entertained. Even so, the mystery developed nicely, with plenty of red herrings that kept me guessing until the end. Savannah and her friends and family are interesting characters, and I enjoyed spending time with them, even if the reason why wasn't pleasant.

I don't know if this book was abnormally dark for the series of if this is normal. All I do know is that I enjoyed it and think I'll be spending more time in San Carmelita. I just won't do it until I'm ready for a book that's a bit darker then normal.

I love this series!!!.......2003-01-07

I love this series and can't believe it took me so long to find this author. This is the first series in a long time that has me laughing and sometimes crying thru the book. The warmth of the characters, their faults - they seem like real people and it didn't take long for the author to make you care about them. I love Dirk and his relationship with Savannah. Savannah is a tough but soft female and her side comments are what have you laughing and smiling. This is a series that I hope is long run. This author - with her first book grabbed a fan and with each book to her latest has moved herself up to the top of my list of favorite authors. If you like Kathleen Taylor, Caroline Haynes, Rhett MacPherson, even Susan Cooper Rogers - you will like this author. If you haven't read any of McKevett's books, start with Just Desserts. After that they can really be read in any order. But for shock value, read Just Desserts first. Don't miss out on this wonderful and talented author!

Southern Hospitality in California.......2002-11-05

Plus-size Savannah Reid (private detective) is working with her good friend Dirk, and her Baywatch worthy assistant, Tammy Hart, to find a serial rapist whom dresses up as Santa Claus when he attacks his victims. But soon Savannah has a bigger problem, her old boss (Captain Bloss), wants her to be his 16-year-old daughters bodyguard, since she was the most recent victim (or, almost victim) of the attack. Soon Savannah is working hard to survive the holiday season, be a baby-sitter, be a hostess to her unexpected sister, brother-in-law, and their treacherous kids, and solve the mystery of the serial rapist, before he moves on to bigger things, such as murder.

This was my first Savannah Reid mystery, and I must admit, I was very impressed. The characters are very likeable and entertaining, and Savannah's feisty attitude is enough to make anyone laugh out loud. A must-read holiday mystery, that is great year-round.

Great series!!!!!.......2002-03-24

Savannah Reid is assisting her former partner Dirk is solving a series of vicious rapes. The victims are kidnapped from a local shopping mall by a man dressed as Santa. The attacks are becoming more and more violent. Her sister Vidalia is very pregnant and angry at her husband Butch. Her arch enemy Capt Bloss' daughter is almost a victim of the rapist, and Van makes herself responsible for everyone.

This is a fast moving mystery with lots of twists. The characters are very realistic and the author involves the reader in the storyline, her descriptions are very good. I will definitely be reading more of this series.

Average customer rating:
One Pot Meals: Flavored without the fuss...home-cooked dinners your family will love! (Goose Berry Patch)
Gooseberry Patch
Manufacturer: Gooseberry Patch
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Plastic Comb

General | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
Culinary Arts & Techniques | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
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Patchwork Potluck: The tastiest recipes for happy times and heartfelt memories, plus easy keepsake crafts.

ASIN: 1931890544

Book Description

Scrumptious meals and only one pot to clean up...a dream come true! Our One-Pot Meals Cookbook is absolutely brimming with new recipes that make cooking delicious dinners a snap like pepperoni pizza rigatoni, country chicken pot pie, campfire onions and old-fashioned applesauce cake. We've also included handy, time-saving ideas for mixing & matching ingredients you have on hand.

Average customer rating:
My Goose Is Cooked: The Continuation Of A West Texas Ranch Woman's Story
Hallie Stillwell , and Betty Heath
Manufacturer: Center for Big Bend Studies Sul Ross State Un
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
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I'll Gather My Geese

ASIN: 0970770928

Average customer rating:
Your Goose Isn't Cooked... Yet!
Hal A. Huggins
Manufacturer: Matrix, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Spiral-bound
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ASIN: 0972461108

Book Description

This is a WHY TO COOK / nutrition book designed to help you balance your own body chemistry and have fun in the kitchen. Foods that are not appropriate for a healthy chemistry are not found here.

ALSO, for the first time ever—HUGGINS' SECRETS! Well, Huggins and a dozen or so scientists and researchers who have been instrumental in actually causing the chemistries to move. The information that is usually given only during Dr. Huggins' lectures on body chemistry is included in mini-chapters throughout the book.

YOUR GOOSE ISN'T COOKED...YET! contains over 230 recipes that have been tested to make them taste better than the average health cookbook recipes and contain what is necessary for a healthy body chemistry.

Good tasting meals, yes, but the real value is in the explanations of what it takes to really create a healthy chemistry.

What do carbohydrates do to your chemistry?
How much protein is enough, too much or too little? How do you know?
How much salt do you need? What kind?
Same for fats.
How about fish as a source of protein? Based on what?

Valuable information that makes the difference between good health and excellent health is available for the very first time. Now you will know what Dr. Hal A. Huggins recommends after 33 years of balancing body chemistry, and, more importantly—why!

Average customer rating:

The Goose That Almost Got Cooked

Emily the goose
The Goose That Almost Got Cooked
Marc Simont
Manufacturer: Scholastic
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Fiction | Birds | Animals | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
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Customer Reviews:

The Goose That Almost Got Cooked.......2002-10-19

The story is about a goose who alawys did flips. So one day she got really tired and fell. Then she fell asleep and the next day she went to a farm. When she was there she almost got cooked.I recommend this book for kids who like adventure and like cooked goose! Michael F.

Emily the goose.......2000-03-29

Emily the goose did fancy loops and stunts while flying. Emily's antics got her in trouble when the flock was migrating. The stunts made her too tired to keep up and she landed on a farm with a farmer, his wife, and their flock of domesticated geese. Things go well until Emily notices a goose is missing. Emily searches for the missing goose and finds a pail of goose feathers. Emily's expression reveal horror and fright. Happily Emily is able to escape. The story gets funny during Emily's escape attempts. I like this book because younger children can look at the pictures and understand the story.

Average customer rating:

Cooked Goose
G. A. McKevett
Manufacturer: Kensington Pub Corp
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000L8WLYE

Average customer rating:

The Goose Is Cooked
Mitchell as Hogarth, Emmett Wilson
Manufacturer: Simon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000GLPRX8

The goose is cooked (Inner sanctum mystery)

Average customer rating:

The goose is cooked (Inner sanctum mystery)
Emmett Hogarth
Manufacturer: Simon and Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0006AP1NU

Average customer rating:

The Goose That Almost Got Cooked
Marc Simont
Manufacturer: Scholastic, New York
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0439227739

Average customer rating:

The Goose That Almost Got Cooked

Manufacturer: Scholastic inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0590690787

Product Description

When Emily was just a gosling, swimming behind her mother, she loved to drop out of line to swim around in little circles... So begins the story of an independent goose.

Customer Reviews:

Classic Corben back in print from iBooks as of June 2003.......2003-06-23

Sure, Harlan Ellison wrote the classic stories, but my first exposure to the adventures of Vic and Blood came through Richard Corben's comic adaptations. I read Ellison's stories later and was happy to find that the comics were very faithful adaptations. It's good to see, therefore, that the iBooks paperback edition of VIC & BLOOD - THE CONTINUING ADVENTURES OF A BOY & HIS DOG gives you the chance to compare the comics with the original stories, all in one book! You get both comic and text versions of "Eggsucker", "A Boy and His Dog", and "Run Spot Run", and the texts are accompanied by a handfull of highly detailed Corben illustrations, along with sidebar quotes from Blood (The Wit and Wisdom of Blood). It's a very attractive package, led off with a humorous introduction by Ellison that touches on his supposed upcoming novel BLOOD'S A ROVER (will we ever see it? I can only hope). While this type of literature might not be everyone's cup of tea, I give this book 5 stars for presentation, as well as its appeal to fans of Ellison and Corben - they will love it.

Barely a 4 star read........1999-08-15

I debated wether I should give this graphic novel 3 stars or 4. I have decided to give it a 4 star rating.

The story was'nt that spectacular, and neither was the art (which is a letdown from this Corben fan). However, the story and art were still in the good range. It was a close call, but I will give this graphic novel a shaky 4 star rating. It was'nt bad.

Average customer rating:
VIC Blood (1987 MAD Dog) 1-2 the Chronicles of a Boy and His Dog
Harlan Ellison
Manufacturer: Mad Dog Graphics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Comic
ASIN: B000RICQB6

Product Description

"The Chronicles Of A Boy And His Dog" October 1987 - February 1988 *** Contains Issue #'s 1-2 *** ELLISON & CORBEN - BRING ELLISON'S CLASSIC SCI-FI "BOY & HIS DOG" TO COMICS ! ...a boy and his telepathic dog in a struggle for survival in post-holocaust badlands. One of Ellison's most famous stories, brought to life via Corben's inimitable art-style. Each issue is 31 full pages of b/w story with full color wraparound covers.

Vic and Blood The Chronicles Of A Boy and His Dog

Average customer rating:

Vic and Blood The Chronicles Of A Boy and His Dog
Harlan Ellison
Manufacturer: St Martins Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OT1S1C

Vic Blood: The Chronicles of a Boy and His Dog

Average customer rating:

Vic Blood: The Chronicles of a Boy and His Dog
Harlan and Richard Corben Ellison
Manufacturer: Nantier-Beall-Minoustchine
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MBEN0U

Average customer rating:

Great resource for dealing with the $ issues we SHOULD have dealt with before!

Parent Helper

Money Still Doesn't Grow on Trees: A Parent's Guide to Raising Financially Responsible Teenagers and Young Adults
Neale Godfrey , and Tad Richards
Manufacturer: Rodale Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
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Accessories:

Health o Meter HDC100-01 "Grow with Me" Teddy Bear Scale for Babies and Toddlers

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ASIN: 1579548512

Book Description

Is it possible to turn a teenager into a financially responsible human being? Based on years of listening and talking to parents and kids about money, Neale S. Godfrey has seen it can happen-but only when parents play an active part in getting them on the right track. Money Still Doesn't Grow on Trees helps parents deal with adolescents' attitudes and expectations about money and offers practical steps for curbing their excesses and helping them acquire the financial savvy they'll need as adults. Godfrey calls upon parents to evaluate the patterns concerning money they have established with their teenage kids. She includes making common mistakes such as trying to give them what 'everyone else' has or using a shopping trip as a reward for good behavior. She explains what teens should know about family finances and budgeting; examines the pressures our consumer culture puts on kids, with smart advice on how to counteract them; and describes the personal values teens gain when they begin to earn and manage their own money. Snapshots of families coping (with varying degrees of success) with their own teenagers' financial habits-plus sidebars, quizzes, cartoons, and quotations-add to the book's appeal and persuasiveness.

Customer Reviews:

Great resource for dealing with the $ issues we SHOULD have dealt with before!.......2007-05-17

A very easy read - with information divided into easily digestible (and logical) sections. Question and answer sections, forms to use, and "real world" examples abound and are extremely helpful, and easily "reworked" to pass along to the child/"pre-adult" in your life. The book even delves into difficult issues such as divorced parents, which creates dealing with "mommy versus daddy" (even in older "children"), diffferent parenting styles, etc. Best perhaps if used when your child is high school age - but we found plenty of information still valuable for a college-age child who's not money-savvy at all. Also wonderful the way it never "talks down" to you - but helps you realize some of the errors you've made - and how to solve them. And most positively - that it's never too late to try to help your kid learn about financial matters!

Parent Helper.......2007-01-29

I gave this book to my daughter and her husand and my son-in-law read it that day. It will assist her parents' financial conversations with my precocious granddaughter.

Book Description

Twelve celebrated chefs from Welcome Group Maurya Sheraton, New Delhi, bring you an array of traditional Indian recipes and delicacies from the subcontinent's cuisine. These chefs have not only simplified and adapted the old recipes to modern times but also generated new ones. The Indian Menu Planner is divided into three sections such as Tandoor and Dry Dishes, Curries and Simmering Pot and Vegetarian Dishes and Desserts. This book is innovatively packaged in a unique triple-section button pack.

Average customer rating:

Indian Menu Planner
Roli Books
Manufacturer: Roli Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 8174370927

Book Description

Geniune ideas for menu planning Indian Style.

Book Description

A must-have guide to the best antiques shopping in London, packed with information for beginners and experts alike.

A dealer herself, Kimberly Jayne Gray has drawn on her personal experience to evoke the atmosphere and charm of over 350 individual antiques sources—from Chelsea's perennially stylish King's Road to Islington's quirky Camden Passage. Beautifully illustrated in color, with clear and attractive maps and an extensive glossary, this guide pinpoints the essentials in an attractive and accessible format. 196 color illustrations.

Provides firsthand insight into London's best antiques dealers, with addresses, Web sites, contact details, and specialties for each
Organizes the information street-by-street, with special sections on antiques markets, auction houses, and antiques fairs
Gives advice on collecting in London style-by-style, from Georgian to contemporary
Includes practical information and maps for getting around—directions, places to eat, and neighborhood points of interest
Features detailed additional reference material, including the basics on restoration and on exporting

Customer Reviews:

The BEST book for English Antique Lovers.......2005-06-10

I love this book,it's brilliant! What I love best about it is: 1) it identifies areas in London that have antiques areas
that I didn't know about and 2) it has web sites and URLs of dealers that aren't easy to find with an internet search engine. I'm no stranger to London having grown up there and a regular visitor, but this book covers the antiques world in greater depth than I knew existed; and when I can't be in London, I'm a constant internet shopper and having all these website addresses
is wonderful!

Great Planning Guide.......2005-05-15

For those of us who travel to London to buy anitiques--or who daydream about doing that, this book is priceless. It offers so many good tips about where to shop for what, and it is written in an accessible, light-hearted style. What beautiful photographs accompany the text!

A New Book About Old Things.......2005-05-10

In addition to sharing an insiders knowledge of the London antique scene (with good, clear maps), this is also an attractive book with numerous beautiful photographs and interesting commentary. It is a worthwhile find even if you aren't going antiquing in London. If you are, it is essential.

The London Antiques Guide: Street-by Sstreet,Style-byStyle.......2005-05-05

I found this book very helpful and informing. A veteran antique dealer who has been shopping london for 15 years, I discovered places I had never visited before. It was easy to read and to use. A must for antique shopping in London!

Book Description

From sailors on the high seas who carved ivory to contemporary artists who work with ecofriendly substitutes, scrimshaw is celebrated and explicated in this introduction to developing the preparation and reproduction skills required to practice this ancient art. Collectors and artisans alike will appreciate the gallery section showcasing more than 50 masterful examples of antique and contemporary scrimshaw pieces. A ready-to-use sailing ship pattern is accompanied by instructions and photographs. Lists of tool suppliers, sources for alternatives to ivory, and books on the history of the art form are also provided.

Book Description

Reissue of a book first published by Batsford in 1992 and long out of print, this is the standard work on the subject. With a new Foreword by Robert Higham, and with improved quality of reproduction of some of the illustrations. Some of the greatest medieval castles survive only as earthworks and in pictures and written accounts because they were made of timber. Robert Higham and Philip Barker, have brought together evidence of all kinds to produce the first comprehensive survey of this neglected and little-known type of fortification. From the authors' 1992 Preface: "The purpose of this book is to restore timber castles to their rightful place in the history of fortification; to show that they were not temporary versions of stone castles, but were formidable strongholds which dominated their surrounding landscapes, sometimes for centuries." Illustrated throughout, numerous photos

Customer Reviews:

Timber!.......2004-06-18

When the Normans conquered England in 1066, they were presented with a problem -- how does one take control of such a vast and unruly land? It has been generally understood that the Normans built series of castles all across the land for local control; the remains of such castles, if not still in use as residences, are archaeological sites and tourist destinations around the country. The Normans took over the existing feudal system, installing their own overlords, but then the lords had to be secure against their local types.

Stone-built castles can take generations to complete, and the new local barons didn't have that kind of time. Thus, the new lords turned to easier building materials -- England was covered with oak trees; the timber castle was devised. Because timber castles don't have the staying power of stone-built castles; indeed, many would end up being replaced by stone castles, this stage in the evolution of castle building is little known and understood.

One of the most interesting and well-developed archaeological sites of a timber castle is Hen Domen, by Philip Barker in a search for something different. The mound was relatively undisturbed, and Barker saw it as a likely place for medieval ceramics. What he found was completely different, and rather unexpected.

Hen Domen was an ancient castle of motte and bailey design. The motte is a hill or a mound with a gulley cut into the ground surrounding it -- later castles would keep this design, and fill the gulley with water; hence, the moat. A wooden structure would sit atop the mound, usually the private residence and other essential buildings. Sometimes, as at Hen Domen, there is a wall around the motte, and a second major wall around the larger motte and bailey area. The bailey is an enclosed area around the motte, with other castle buildings -- storage, chapel, military fortifications, stables, etc. The castle would be a bustling a growing place. Servants, military guards, clergy, and the noble family would all live together in the castle.

Hen Domen was likely built in 1070, shortly after the Norman conquest. Archaeological evidence shows that Hen Domen was continued in use until at least the 1300s. There was a Welsh attack on Hen Domen in the 1090s, chronicled both in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles as well as in archaeological evidence. Many timber castles were built near the Welsh border -- thus they suffered attacks regularly for hundreds of years. Builders of timber castles worked to devise better and better defenses -- eventually, stone was used over timber, but innovations in between included earthen-filled timber walls, painting and plastering, fire-resistant materials, and even camoflague -- timber castles were sometimes disguised by plastering to look like stone.

Castles were not merely for defense. They also served to project the image of wealth and power of the lord, not only to the local population, but also toward each other -- a sort of lordly keeping-up-with-the-Joneses. Timber castles grew in size and complexity,

The site of Stafford, excavated archaeologically fairly recently, still has the earthen works of motte and bailey -- in fact, the evidence shows it had three baileys: three rings of baileys, which included in hierarchical rings the entire village of Stafford, keeping in sections the upper, middle and lower classes. Stafford shows one of the problems of timber castles -- unlike stone, timber wears away over time much more quickly, so apart from foundations and minute evidences, there is little left of the timber castle. Indeed, there is a manor house from the eighteenth/nineteenth century on top of the motte today.

Authors Robert Higam and Philip Barker look at timber castles in many parts of the country, as well as the lifestyle of people inside (life was not necessarily nasty, brutish and short; indeed, it could be rather pleasant, even if it required fairly hardy people). Despite the fact that many castle designs were eventually replaced by stone designs (and eventually brick designs), timber castles had a formidible place in their own right as a valued fortification for hundreds of years.

This is a fascinating glimpse at a lesser-known piece of history.

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Medieval oak chronology from the Vilnius Lower Castle [An article from: Dendrochronologia]
R. Pukiene , and E. Ozalas
Manufacturer: Elsevier
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Lithuania | Europe | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000PDSMP2

Book Description

This digital document is a journal article from Dendrochronologia, published by Elsevier in 2007. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
The paper describes the results of a dendrochronological investigation on historical oak (Quercus robur L.) timbers from the Vilnius Lower Castle excavations. In Lithuania, oak was used only in specific cases during the Middle Ages. Therefore, historical material for tree ring chronology building is lacking. However, the construction of a local oak chronology is of great importance as it can help to determine the provenance of many imported timbers that are part of wooden cultural heritage in Western Europe. Oak samples make 9.2% of the analysed timbers excavated in the Vilnius Lower Castle territory - the largest present-day collection of historical timbers in Lithuania. The main material for Vilnius oak chronology was obtained from the 'bridge foundation (BF)' construction found close to the Royal Palace gate at a depth of 4-5m. Ring-width series of the oak beams of the 'BF', together with other excavated oak logs were cross-dated and a mean chronology of 217-year length was constructed. The chronology was dated to AD 1202-1418 against the Baltic reference chronologies BALTIC1 (t=7.57), BALTIC2 (t=4.52) and WINCHCOL (t=5.74) (authors J. Hilliam, I. Tyers, D. Mills). The average date of the hardwood - sapwood boundary on the 'bridge' samples that have partially preserved sapwood is between 1406 and 1407. As the average number of oak sapwood rings is considered to be 16, the most probable felling date of trees used for the 'BF' is situated around 1423.

An Archeological survey of the proposed Castle Timber Sale: Kaibab National Forest, Arizona (Archives E 78 U5a no. 128 NPS)

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An Archeological survey of the proposed Castle Timber Sale: Kaibab National Forest, Arizona (Archives E 78 U5a no. 128 NPS)
Donald G Wood
Manufacturer: USDA Forest Service, Southwestern Region
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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Lietuvos medines pilys
Gintautas Zabiela
Manufacturer: Diemedis
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Lithuania | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

General | Military | History | Subjects | Books

Lithuanian | More Languages | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books
ASIN: 9986230187

Timber-framed buildings in Watford (Occasional paper - Hertfordshire Local History Council ; no. 5)

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Timber-framed buildings in Watford (Occasional paper - Hertfordshire Local History Council ; no. 5)
Stephen A Castle
Manufacturer: Phillimore for the Hertfordshire Local History Council
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0850332354

Book Description

View the Table of Contents. Read the Prologue.

"Drawing on archives that include McBride's radio interviews, as well as letters from former listeners, Ware begins with a description of McBride's radio show when it was at its height."—Booklist

"While there have been more than a few fine radio histories written by professional and nonprofessional historians in the last forty years, the last decade must be the golden age of radio scholarship...and Susan Ware's It's One O'Clock and Here is Mary Margaret McBride continues this current focus in radio scholarship."
—Journal of American History

"Sincere and sometimes self-effacing, Mary Margaret was the Oprah of her day- her name a household word that might be forgotten if not for Susan Ware's carefully researched and charmingly likeable biography."
—American Journalism

"Ware has restored McBride to a rightful place in broadcasting history."—Columbia Journalism Review

"Tune in and treat yourself to Susan Ware's fascinating saga of the life and work of radio personality Mary Margaret McBride. Like McBride, Ware is at once probing and entertaining as she analyzes McBride's success from the 1930s through the 1950s, restoring McBride to her rightful place as the mother of talk radio and television."
—Lizabeth Cohen, author of A Consumers' Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America

"This discerning biography of radio pioneer Mary Margaret McBride illuminates an entire cultural era and offers fascinating parallels to our own time. In Susan Ware's engaging narrative, McBride emerges as an icon of twentieth century popular culture and its romance with what we now describe as 'talk radio.' McBride's story is a tale of power, freedom and connection boldly interpreted by a leading woman's historian."
—Joyce Antler, author of The Journey Home: How Jewish Women Shaped Modern America

"Well written and lively, Susan Ware's biography rightly restores McBride to her proper place in broadcasting history."
—Susan Douglas, author of Listening In: Radio and the American Imagination

One of the most beloved radio show hosts of the 1940s and 1950s, Mary Margaret McBride (1899-1976) regularly attracted between six and eight million listeners to her daily one o'clock broadcast. During her twenty years on the air she interviewed tens of thousands of people, from President Harry Truman and Frank Lloyd Wright to Rachel Carson and Zora Neale Hurston. This is her story.

Five decades after their broadcast, her shows remain remarkably fresh and interesting. And yet McBride—the Oprah Winfrey of her day—has been practically forgotten, both in radio history and in the history of twentieth-century popular culture, primarily because she was a woman and because she was on daytime radio.

Susan Ware explains how Mary Margaret McBride was one of the first to exploit the cultural and political importance of talk radio, pioneering the magazine-style format that many talk shows still use. This radio biography recreates the world of daytime radio from the 1930s through the 1950s, confirming the enormous significance of radio to everyday life, especially for women.

In the first in-depth treatment of McBride, Ware starts with a description of how widely McBride was revered in the mid-1940s—the fifteenth anniversary party for her show in 1949 filled Yankee Stadium. Once the readers have gotten to know Mary Margaret (as everyone called her), Ware backtracks to tell the story of McBride's upbringing, her early career, and how she got her start in radio. The latter part of the book picks up McBride's story after World War II and through her death in 1976. An epilogue discusses the contemporary talk show phenomenon with a look back to Mary Margaret McBride's early influence on the format.

Customer Reviews:

Doing The Products.......2005-11-07

I couldn't put the book down and took it with me on a flight to Seattle, then finished it on another flight to San Diego. What a ride! Susan Ware, one of the editors of NOTABLE AMERICAN WOMEN, has gone back way in the past for this one. McBride was the premiere radio interviewer in the US in the 1940s and 1950s; as Ware astutely observes, she was yesteryear's equivalent of Oprah Winfrey, but plus . . . Plus what? Through the privileged relation then of radio to home, McBride created an intimacy with her listeners--seventy percent of them women--which even Oprah can't approximate, though she's certainly tops at what she does. Even Oprah's struggles with her weight, which have endeared her to millions of us, had their original rehearsal in McBride's huge girth, and in one famous incident in 1948 she got caught in a zipper and had to delay coming on to her own show--with complete honesty and charm she told the studio audience what had happened, and people loved her even more.

She came from a rocky girlhood in Missouri, and Ware is at her best showing us how she survived all kinds of grim childhood tragedies with a poignant determination to escape poverty. She never looked back; well, except to pen a series of best-selling memoirs of her youth a la Maya Angelou; and she brought her family with her, making sure all were well taken care of. Her mother was a frequent guest on her program, and when the mother died all America cried with her.

Mary Margaret never accepted advertising from any sponsors whose products she had not personally tried and approved. Every episode of her show had her, interrupting herself constantly, to talk about up to 14 different ad campaigns. She called this "doing the products," and she believed in sponsorship religiously.

Ware is very good showing how McBride helped to bolster, indeed create, middlebrow culture, but her distinctions are problematic. McBride, like Oprah, specialized in book promotion, and Ware says that she shunned highbrow culture and never had Hemingway, Faulkner, Thomas Wolfe, or Eugene O'Neill on the program. And yet as Ware allows, McBride welcomed William Carlos Williams, James Thurber, Tennessee Williams, Zora Neale Hurston, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, and Erskine Caldwell. Not to mention the cultural figures like Orson Welles, Martha Graham, etc. Like it or not, these authors are just as much a part of "modernist culture" as Faulkner and Company. There's a strange diffusion to some of Ware's arguments in this direction; if she wants to argue one thing, she reads Evidence Item X to prove it, but she then turns around and uses the same item to argue something completely different. In this case, it's arguing for McBride's disdain of modernism and yet her sympathy for writers of color; of course the paths intersect more than Ware wants to admit.

The same diffusion is present also during her discussion of whether or not Mary Margaret McBride might have been a Lesbian, or were she and Stella Karn (her producer) just "girlfriends" of a different sort. Ware's conclusions on this topic vary from chapter to chpater.

I love her story about Langston Hughes, present during a taping during which McBride was advertising Dromedary Gingerbread Mix, and she urged him to help her out, and he responded with a perfect ad lib poem (that does not appear in his Collected Poems you may be sure):

"Dromedary, help me carry
News of chocolate cake;
Also, news of gingerbread
For all the folks who bake."

Ware's research (she listened to hundreds of hours of the program to transcribe wonderful tidbits like this) is fantastic. It is a book well done and so provcative in today's radio climate.

A peek at the first Oprah.......2005-10-24

Although I enjoyed this book I was surprised to find an antecdote describing a time when Miss McBride was supposed to have Eleanor Roosevelt as a guest. When Mrs. Franklin Roosevelt failed to show, she substituted Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt who happened to be a studio guest that day. Unfortunately,in the book,author Susan Ware states that Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt's name was also Eleanor. It was not. It was Edith. Even if Miss McBride got this wrong, I was disappointed that Ms. Ware didn't inform the readers - especially those that care about history - of her mistake.

The first in-depth examination of McBride's popularity.......2005-06-10

If you don't recognize the name of radio personality Mary Marget McBride, don't worry: she was one of the major radio show hosts of the 1940s and 1950s and had her own popular daily one o'clock broadcast where she interested presidents and famous personalities alike. Five decades after their broadcast her shows still hold relevance today: Susan Ware explores how Mary McBride influenced formats many talk shows still use, capturing the world of 1930s to 1950s radio broadcasting in all its social and political importance. It's One O'clock is the first in-depth examination of McBride's popularity and radio show, following both her life and upbringing and her impact on media as a whole. Susan Ware edits the biographical dictionary Notable American Women and is in the perfect position to lend depth and authority to McBride's achievements.

It's One O'Clock Here is Mary Margaret McBride.......2005-04-27

I loved this book it tells how things were in the 1920's-1950's for a driven young woman who became the first talk radio personality. Every chapter is fun and informative.

More interesting than you think.......2005-04-22

I work in Radio so I bought it out of obligation to the subject matter and boy was I surprised. I'VE READ IT FOUR TIMES. It is a fascinating story of how great radio is made and what makes a radio star. And she was a true star. Everything she did is true of every radio star I know working today--the news is, she did it first. I would give this to everyone thinking of working in radio and every young person (it will be inspiring to women in particular) who wonder what it takes to be a success in media. It takes every cell in your body. Bravo!!!!

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