Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War

Book Description

March 2003: The United States invades Iraq.

October 2006: The world finds out why.

What was really behind the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq? As George W. Bush steered the nation to war, who spoke the truth and who tried to hide it? Hubris takes us behind the scenes at the Bush White House, the CIA, the Pentagon, the State Department, and Congress to answer all the vital questions about how the Bush administration came to invade Iraq.

Filled with new revelations, Hubris is a gripping narrative of intrigue that connects the dots between George W. Bush’s expletive-laden outbursts at Saddam Hussein, the bitter battles between the CIA and the White House, the fights within the intelligence community over Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction, the startling influence of an obscure academic on top government officials, the real reason Valerie Plame was outed, and a top reporter’s ties to wily Iraqi exiles trying to start a war. Written by veteran reporters Michael Isikoff and David Corn, this is the inside story of how President Bush took the nation to war using faulty and fraudulent intelligence. It is a news-making account of conspiracy, backstabbing, bureaucratic ineptitude, journalistic malfeasance, and, especially, arrogance.

Customer Reviews:

The disastrous results of self-assuredness and deficient critical thinking.......2007-10-03

Michael Isikoff and David Cron have put together a compelling, detailed report of the faulty case for going to war with Iraq. If you want to know the story behind the various pieces of faulty intelligence that the Bush administration used to sell the war, this is the book for you.

This is a great case study for what happens when arrogant self-assuredness is married to deficient critical thinking.

It may very well have turned out that we would have eventually had to go to war with Iraq. But there was no compelling reason to do it at the time we did, and the reasons the Bush administration cited for going to war were all faulty and the information to suggest it was faulty was available all along, just ignored.

A news story rehash.......2007-09-11

Unless you haven't read the newspapers for the last 4 years or so, this book is not worth the effort. A rehash of their and others work.

Bloated book with nothing new to offer.......2007-09-06

This title presents the reader with a basic rehash of public reported on stories regarding the administrations rush to war. After reading it, there was hardly anything new, rather there was a summary of all the events that took place regarding the WMD case and the subsequent investigations.

I have to say that the book made no compelling characters stand out, nor did it make anyone, aside from perhaps Karl Rove seem the bad guy. In fact it's annoying habit of making everyone seem equally guilty serves to cut hard edge out of the book. All in all I kept on reading expecting something new to come up or some succinct revelation to appear yet in the end all we saw was a rebroadcast of old news.

Important Stuff Missing.......2007-08-22

I see this is a best-selling book by two prominent journalists. It is shocking, then, that there is no mention in the book of either the "Downing Street Memo" from July 2002 which documents the fact that Bush, at least as far back is middle of 2002 (and many contend even earlier - when the Bushies came into office in January 2001 - wanting war with Iraq), had decided to go to war with the small details like the "cause" or "justification" for the war to be left up to the spin-meisters and Karl Rove.

Neither is the Project for a New American Century (PNAC) mentioned in the book. The PNAC is the Neo-Con, war-mongering think-tank which had advocated war with Iraq as far back as 1997-98.

It is sad that the Mainstream Media and the journalistic establishment has almost completely ignored the Downing Street Memo and the Project for a New American Century in their coverage and analysis of the Iraq war and the Bush administration. An even better book in this regard is Armed Madhouse: From Baghdad to New Orleans--Sordid Secrets and Strange Tales of a White House Gone Wild

Atlas Shrugged.......2007-08-15

Whatever you think of Mike Isikoff's ultimate contentions & analysis regarding the adventures of Team Bush in the Middle East, you gotta admit the title is just killer.

Isn't it? HUBRIS. Wow. Just---wow.

No, stay with me on this: think of your worst, most hated Enemy (no silly, I admire your partisanship you Kos-Sack you, but it can't be Bush---at least not for *this* little mind-exercise).

Now imagine that Enemy getting you fired at work, sneaking into your house & introducing the sneaky snake to your wife (or the Great Oscillating Cavern of Tempation to your hubby), then killing your cat, burning your house down, & dancing up and down on the ashes.

Got that in mind? Good: now consider the word you would come up with to describe your Enemy's actions. Got that word in mind? Yes? Now: honestly, would it be 'Hubris'?

Yes? Great! Keep reading.

Isikoff has cobbled together an unsurprising critique of Bush war policy, which centers in on the primary flaw of BUSHIDO: the Bush guys, unlike the Clinton guys, did something against Saddam Hussein and Islamic terrorists. Doing something in America these days---whatever it is---is dangerous. Risky.

This isn't really a nation of big tough he-men risking it all to make the world safe for big-D Democracy anymore: it's more like a bunch of trousered knats spending lotsa time flaunting their Lance Armstrong 'livestrong' love bracelets, cycling around in their girly-girly little tightpants, and jogging.

So as you can see, in the New America(tm), the old-fashioned BUSHIDO was doomed from the start. Isikoff's book is lovingly, brutally detailed, & pretty much supports the contention that Bush should have done absolutely nothing. Maybe lobbed a cruise missile or two 'over there', but that's about it. It's also boring.

But never mind that: if you don't groove on the title, you'll really be down with the cover art. Yeah, buy it for Reservoir Dogs-esque cover art. Dig it. Quentin Tarnantino couldn't have crafted a better shot of the BUSHIDO team ambling down a stretch of Dark Territory into the next big gunfight. You can just about hear the strains of "Little Green Bag" as Condi, W., Rummy, & 'Shotgun Dick' Cheney stride down the Road to pull off that one last Job, or to face down that Bad, Bad Man.

HUBRIS! The old Greek tragic flaw that brought down great heroes, like Oedipus, or Agisthus, or Agamemnon, or Jimmy the Greek.

HUBRIS! Fortunately Curious George's case of hubris isn't quite as nasty as, say, Oedipus, whose version of the old greek disease impelled him to whack Dad, nail Mom, and gouge his eyeballs out.

HUBRIS! But it's bad, evidently, really bad, because now we're mired in the much and quicksand and blood and sludge of Iraq, and the world really hates us, a stark turnaround from the morning of 9/11, when the Nasty Cowboy hadn't invaded anybody and the world loved us all.

Why not just say what you want to say, Isikoff? Why not just call your book "Axxholes"? Why 'Hubris'? Why weaken the whiskey? Why not just come out and say what you think, guys? How about "Dumbaxxes"? Or better still, "Lying Nazi Pigs"? Or better still, "Big Ugly Poopyheads"?

Isikoff brings the same eye for detail found in his book "Uncovering Clinton", back in the day when Isikoff was famous for rooting around in Bill Clinton's underwear drawer and saving fluid samples.

Fortunately, we don't get any stained blue dresses here, but we do get the usual whack-a-Bush talking points: basically 1) the Bush administration either manufactured evidence claiming Saddam had a WMD program; 2) All the Kings Men were either too sycophantic or too incompetent to investigate such claims and 3) consequently, we now find ourselves embroiled in the GREATEST MILITARY DISASTER OF ALL TIME! Yeah.

Anyhoo, though, there are a few mysteries raised by all of this Sturm Und Drang, signifying NICHT. Among them:

1)Alright, Isikoff skirts the line of calling Bush a liar, but only barely: the whole point of "Hubris" is that the Administration knew better---so if it wasn't mendacity they were guilty of, it was close to it. So Bush lied, fine.

But if you accept that---that Bush positively *knew* there were no WMDs in Iraq, and pushed for invasion anyway---then didn't he know the later revelation that Saddam didn't have a WMD program would make him look silly, or mendacious, or both? I mean, if he's gonna lie about the WMD program to begin with, why not have a couple of trusty guys in the black helicopters plant a few nukes on the scene, after the fact?

2)If the yardstick by which our success is measured is largely temporal---that is, our troops are still *there* dangit---then why are we still in Europe, Japan, & Korea? God knows Europe is a total basket-case, Japan is cranking out manga---have you seen that stuff, especially with the tentacles?---and they have Video-gamers Anonymous in Korea, so let's bring AlL the boys home, now!

3)Isn't it a bit of a stretch to contend that Saddam was a WMD virgin, given all the NOOK-lear proms in the region he'd gone too?

I guess that's one mystery too many for me. Poor planning, sure. But Greek Tragedy? I don't think so. I'm for readability, credibility, a touch of nerdability, and truth in advertising: a wonkish analysis would have been just fine in my book.

But from its stupid title, to its mind-bendingly dull writing, to its even duller thesis, to its complete lack of strategic imagination, "Hubris" gets a big fat "F". Or better yet, in the Greek spirit, "P." For Polymachus, Python, or Prometheus, you ask?

None of the above. For "Poop".

JSG

Foxfire 2: Ghost Stories, Spring Wild Plant Foods, Spinning and Weaving, Midwifing, Burial Customs, Corn Shuckin's, Wagon Making and More Affairs of Plain Living

Average customer rating:

BOOK(S) WITH A WONDERFUL PURPOSE.
Survival Guide for Hardy Individuals
Great Book!
Foxfire books are excellent
I love the series of these books

Foxfire 2: Ghost Stories, Spring Wild Plant Foods, Spinning and Weaving, Midwifing, Burial Customs, Corn Shuckin's, Wagon Making and More Affairs of Plain Living
Inc. Foxfire Fund
Manufacturer: Anchor
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | History & Historical Fiction | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

General | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0385022670
Release Date: 1973-05-22

Book Description

This second Foxfire volume includes topics such as ghost stories, spinning and weaving, wagon making, midwifing, corn shuckin', and more.

Customer Reviews:

BOOK(S) WITH A WONDERFUL PURPOSE........2007-04-13

THis work, Volume II, is like the others. A wonderful history of how it was. In this day and age of having most needs meet and something for everyone on the Wal-mart shelf, we tend to forget just what it was like in our not too distant past. These books, the Foxfire books, brings to light skills, attitudes and a way of life that is all but forgotten. This is a good thing. When a people lose their history, they lose part of their soul. As the title of this work states, Ghost Stories, Wild Plant Foods, Spinning, Weaving, Midwifing, Corn Shucking, and there is so much more. The editors have done a wonderful job. They have made a very honest effort to replicate the dialect of those places and times and I feel that this is a big part of the charm of these books. I am old enough to have known many of the kinds of folks featured in these books, being only one generation past them, and have a great appreciation for what and how they did all the little things we take so for granted now. I might also suggest that you actually try some of the things mentioned in these volumes. It will give you even more of an appreciation for what they did, and hey, who knows, the skill you develope just might come in handy one of these days! Recommend this and the other Foxfire books highly.

Survival Guide for Hardy Individuals.......2007-03-28

Have enjoyed all the Foxfire Books for years. They are a wonderful peek into the lives of hardy people who survived without a single benefit from the U.S.Government.........and were proud of it.

Great Book!.......2006-03-15

I bought this book for my husband and he loves it! There are so many interesting facts in these books. I would suggest this book to anyone who is interested in how things were back in the "old" days. Everyone, no matter how young or old, will learn something from reading this book.

Foxfire books are excellent.......2003-07-29

Years ago we owned all the Foxfire books, and then we donated them to the library so others could glean the wisdom they had, and we have slowly begun to but copies for our home library and this is one that I wanted first. Simply because it had information on burial customs and I make plain pine burial boxes. And because it has excellent information on wild plants that are edible in the spring and we love to forage for wild plants for food like stinging nettle, fiddle fern and dandelion. The section on bee keeping is also informative. Then there is the wonderful section on midwives which is of personal interest to me, as well as the wonderful section on how to wash clothes in an iron pot, because being vagbond-homestead-mountain mode people we like good clean clothes washed in an environmentally sound manner using the least amount of soap possible.

The Foxfire series is one that comes up on various simple living, homestead, frugal websites and web boards. So I know that millions of people have over the years found the series of books to be invaluable.

I love the series of these books.......1999-09-13

The series of Foxfire books takes you back in time when life was hard physically but simplier mentally. While reading these books I fell like I am in a time capsule being transported back in time ninety or so years. I enjoy past history and anything to do with mountain country around the Smokies. These peope lived off the land and took the time to enjoy life and their families. These books provide tips for things that are still done the same way, such as tanning hides. Norma Doyle, Florida

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People of Corn: A Mayan Story
Mary-Joan Gerson
Manufacturer: Little Brown & Co (Juv)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | History & Historical Fiction | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

Picture Books | Ages 4-8 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0316308544

The Corn Raid: A Story of the Jamestown Settlement (Jamestown's American Portraits)

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The Corn Raid: A Story of the Jamestown Settlement (Jamestown's American Portraits)
James Lincoln Collier
Manufacturer: School Specialty Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books

All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
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ASIN: 0769634303

Book Description

Life for indentured servents in pioneer Virginia is hard. It is doubly hard for 12-year-old Richard Ayre, a London orphan who had been scooped off the streets as a child and sent to Jamestown Colony. But a chance encounter with an Indian boy his own age gives him a friend, the first real friend he has had in years-until his master's plan to raid an Indian village for corn turns Richard's world upside down.

br>Titles in this series:

• This Generation of Americans: A Story of the Civil Rights Movement, by Fredrick L. McKissack, Jr.

• The Road to Freedom: A Story of the Reconstruction, by Jabari Asim

• All For Texas: A Story of Texas Liberation, by G. Clifton Wisler

• The Worst of Times: A Story of the Great Depression, by James Lincoln Collier

• Wind on the River: A Story of the Civil War, by Laurie Lawlor

• When I Dream of Heaven: Angelina’s Story, by Steven Kroll (1895 Italian Immigrant in NYC)

• An Eye for an Eye: A Story of the Revolutionary War, by Peter and Connie Roop

• Sweet America: An Immigrant’s Story, by Steven Kroll

• The Corn Raid: A Story of the Jamestown Settlement, by James Lincoln Collier

• Revenge of the Aztecs: A Story of 1920s Hollywood, by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Book Description

The Cam Jansen series is perfect for young readers who are making the transition to chapter books. The first ten books in the series have received updated covers, bringing new life to these perennial bestsellers. Now the series redesign continues with five more books, giving Cam a cool, modern look!

Customer Reviews:

Cam is at it again, solving a new mystery..........2005-01-19

You have to love Cam Jansen. When you're a kid, you read all of these stories about magic powers, mystery, and adventure. But everyone tells you magic can't exist. Cam Jansen manages to solve every case without the use of magic... she's a real girl. That's what makes her special and what makes you want to red more and more. Cam Jansen is a real kid superhero, and the thought that a person like her could actually exist... makes her the best kid detective ever! Our family loves Cam Jansen!

We love Cam Jansen.......2002-04-14

My 7 year old son loves to hear Cam Jansen stories. This was a great little mystery book for all those your mystery lovers out there!

Average customer rating:

Kind of A-maize-ing
Corn breadth
what a book
Best book about corn you can find!
A specialized food history

The Story of Corn
Betty Fussell
Manufacturer: University of New Mexico Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

History | Gastronomy | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

General | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

Folklore & Mythology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

History of Technology | Technology | Science | Subjects | Books

Agronomy | Agricultural Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0826335926

Book Description

The Story of Corn is a unique compendium, drawing upon history and mythology, science and art, anecdote and image, personal narrative and epic to tell the extraordinary story of the grain that built the New World. Corn transformed the way the entire world eats, providing a hardy, inexpensive alternative to rice or wheat and cheap fodder for livestock and finding its way into everything from explosives to embalming fluid.

Betty Fussell has given us a true American saga, interweaving the histories of the indigenous peoples who first cultivated the grain and the European conquerors who appropriated and propagated it around the globe. She explores corn's roles as food, fetish, crop, and commodity to those who have planted, consumed, worshiped, processed, and profited from it for seven centuries.

Now available only from the University of New Mexico Press, The Story of Corn, is the winner of a Julia Child Cookbook Award from the International Association of Culinary Professionals.

“Written in a lively and nontechnical style.”—Library Journal

“Fussell has clearly done a good deal of research and a lot of traveling—peering over a precipice at Machu Picchu, descending into a restored ceremonial kiva of the Anasazi people in New Mexico, visiting the sole surviving corn palace from the Midwest boosters' glory days of a century ago.”—Kirkus Reviews

This interweaving of folklore, history, and science tells the seven-century story of the importance of corn in the Americas.

Customer Reviews:

Kind of A-maize-ing.......2006-11-16

I must admit, I am actually a beet person (well, root vegetables generally) and bought this book to get ammo to goof on my corn enthusiast friends. But how the worm has turned! Corn and human history are inextricably linked, a bonding of nurture and social evolution. This book lays down the facts.

I guess in retrospect my "hubris" about beets was misguided and wrong. I now think the lesson I learned, whether it pertains to vegetables, politics, music or whatever, is that YOU SHOULD NEVER UNDERESTIMATE DIFFERENT OPINIONS. It's too easy to do, and is an easy way to miss out on fundamental truths.

In that sense, this book transcends it's core audience of corn folk (cornies?) and teaches a much deeper lesson if you are not really interested in corn - that well disciplined research into unfamiliar topics can instruct and delight the receptive reader.

Read it, enjoy and reflect.

Corn breadth.......2006-10-21

This tome covers corn "ear" to toe. I love the sassy tone and contrarian viewpoints.

what a book.......2006-06-23

Everything you want to know about corn is found in this book. And I mean everything. We see corn growing in fields everyday but do we actually stop and think about it? Do we pull over to the side of the road and LOOK at it? It's amazing how corn has been around longer than anyone will know. This book covers an overwhelming amount of detail. If you don't find it interesting you're just not a corn person. In fact, the only thing it doesn't answer is why I threw up over a bad cob one time. I don't throw up.

Best book about corn you can find!.......2006-01-28

I love corn. Whether it's cobbed, creamed, breaded, or popped. This book is non-stop corn!

A specialized food history .......2005-01-06

Food historian Betty Fussell's survey of corn history blends folklore, anthropology, botany and social and art history to provide a lively blend of anecdotes and facts about world corn, from its influence on war and ritual uses in the Inca and Aztec worlds to its use as a key ingredient in different cultures' cuisines. The Story Of Corn isn't a cookbook; it's a specialized food history which will appeal across many different lines, from students of anthropology and sociology to culinary enthusiasts and history buffs.

Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War, Library Edition

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Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War, Library Edition
Michael Isikoff , and David Corn
Manufacturer: Blackstone Audiobooks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD

Conspiracy Theories | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Federal Government | Government | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 078616090X

The Cornbread Book: A Love Story with Recipes

Average customer rating:

Cornbread at it's best!
Very Good Little Culinary Novella.
Swoon-worthy!
Can't agree with other reviews here, alas
Read it and eat!

The Cornbread Book: A Love Story with Recipes
Jeremy Jackson
Manufacturer: William Morrow Cookbooks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Bread | Baking | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

General | Baking | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

History | Gastronomy | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

General | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0060096799
Release Date: 2003-03-25

Book Description

Jeremy Jackson has four goals:

Make cornbread one word. Once and for all.
Have cornbread named the official bread of the United States.
Find a wife.
Think outside the box of cornmeal about the Possibilities, potentialities, and promises of cornbread.

Cornbread is the American bread. The by-the-people-for-the-people bread. So it should be put forth to the people with humor. And a whole lot of butter.

The Cornbread Book does just that with recipes for cornbreads, fritters, hush puppies, and biscuits. Cornbreads of the sweet persuasion appear, too, from biscotti to pound cake. And there are yeast breads such as Anadama Batter Bread and Cornmeal Pizza Dough. Don't forget timeless favorites like spoonbread, buttermilk cornbread, and popovers. Not to mention Gospel Buns, Sweet Potato Cupcakes, and Honey Snail (which doesn't come within ten miles of an actual snail).

Cornbread doesn't even have to be made with cornmeal. Hominy-Leek Monkey Bread has riced hominy. And Jeremy is as proud as a peacock to have come up with three yeast breads made with flour he milled from popped popcorn (Popcorn White Loaf, Popcorn Pita Bread, and Popcorn Focaccia). In the unlikely event you have any leftover cornbread, Jeremy has recipes for cornbread salad, croutons, and dressing.

And if you ever meet Jeremy, he might just sing you "The Cornbread Song" . . .

Customer Reviews:

Cornbread at it's best!.......2006-11-04

Mr. Jackson's book is not only informative but the recipes are the best I've ever found. There's nothing like a "from scratch" recipe for full flavor and these cornbread recipes have proven to be great for breakfast, lunch, dinner or dessert. This is definitely a book for all of us cornbread lovers.

Very Good Little Culinary Novella........2005-08-08

`The Cornbread Book', the first book from Jeremy Jackson subtitled `a love story with recipes' is a delightful little 120 page book written with the kind of devotion to its subject which simply draws you in and makes you love the subject almost as much as the author. And, one is drawn to affection for the author's candor in acknowledging himself for having done the lion's share of work toward completing this book. This is oddly refreshing when weighed against the `cast of thousands' acknowledgments which you find in some books where entries seem to be rewards for nothing more than a gratis contribution of a recipe or doing that for which you are being paid anyway.

For a list price of $14.95, we get what may be considered not much more than a series of articles from John Thorne or James Villas, but I still think it's worth it. This may be considered a culinary novella. It is the food world's version of `Death in Venice' by Thomas Mann or `Heart of Darkness' by Joseph Conrad. Please overlook the fact that it was not written by M.F.K. Fisher, Elizabeth David, Jeffrey Steingarten, or Julia Child. It is a very promising first work and since I have already reviewed Master Jackson's second book, the somewhat more substantial `desserts that have killed better men than me', I expect better and better things from this author, as long as he can find things other than cornbread with to develop a love.

Master Jackson's attachment to cornbread begins with what may be considered a baptism with corn meal, as in the chill Midwest, where one could not go out and play in the wickedly cold winter, Jackson had a little indoor sandbox filled with cornmeal which during naps and other slumbers, was stored in a great glass jar, separated from the corn meal reserved for baking.

Since this little book is devoted to but a single rather limited subject, you can be sure that Master Jackson covers it from just about every angle. The fact that it is limited can be demonstrated that in contrast, the seemingly small and related subject of bread baking in England consumes almost 600 pages from the pen of the great Elizabeth David.

The thing which most distinguishes cornbread baking from baking with wheat is the great variety of forms and possibilities created by wheat's gluten protein forming powers which lends itself to all sorts of leavenings, the most important of which is yeast leavening. Corn flour dough, and virtually every other type of flour dough simply does not create gluten, which is why wheat is mixed in with lots of other types of flours. But obviously, this does not stop our ancestors, especially those who trace their lineage back to pre-Columbian Americans from making various types of bread from corn meal and us.

Before boring you much further with my rants about this splendid little book, let me say that I believe the finest use of various cornbread recipes herein are as accompaniments to soups and stews. As a relatively slow amateur cook, the making of one major dish usually takes up all my creative energies come mealtime. Thus, there isn't much time to spend making an imaginative starch side dish, with the possible exception of the simplest pasta with oil and garlic.

Therefore, if you run through this book and master but one or two of these recipes so that you can do them without consulting the printed page, you can immediately branch out and add all sorts of things to this simple recipe and amaze your family with a scrumptious main dish accompanied by great fresh cornbread.

The book covers four different types of cornbread recipes, basic, `beyond basic', sweet, and yeast cornbreads. To this is added a chapter on what to do with leftover cornbreads. Note that many of the recipes, especially those in the `beyond basic' and `sweet' chapters are much more like cakes, cookies, and other dessert dishes than they are like `breads'. That doesn't mean Master Jackson is moving off message. He very gently reminds us he is on track when he gives us recipes for a corn meal crepe, but not recipes for crepe fillings, as this is not a book about crepes!

One of my few disappointments with this book is that Master Jackson does not explain the anomaly in Yankee cornbread recipes containing sugar while Johnny Reb recipes being less sweet, while most other southern cooking tends to be richer than its northern cousins. Virtually the only culinary danger I found was the phrase which combined Jalapeno and Habanero chilis as suggestions for a certain type of recipe while taking no notice of the truly great difference in heat to be found in these two varieties of chili.

My greatest surprise and joy in reading this book was the discovery of popcorn meal, created exactly as you might expect, by grinding up popcorn into a flour and using it exactly as you may use any other type of flour.

If you are a foodie of just about any stripe whatsoever, it is hard to deny yourself the pleasure of this little book, as it is inexpensive and full of easy, useful, tasty recipes.

Very highly recommended.

Swoon-worthy!.......2004-02-29

What a fresh voice to discover in the cookbook aisle--I was so charmed that I paid full-price! (And the recipes are fabulous, too.)

As someone who once longed for an MFA of her own but is now in culinary school studying pastry arts, I couldn't possibly be more appreciative of Mr. Jackson's talents--unless he were to provide color commentary all day long while I baked. I will without doubt be purchasing his other efforts, both literary & culinary.

Can't agree with other reviews here, alas.......2003-08-15

I wish I could. I love cornbread. And Jeremy J has impeccable credentials (Missouri farmboy grew up eating/loving mama's cornbread, recipe given). The recipes here are pretty good, some very good, mostly classic, a few innovative. Though directions are sometimes sketchy and less than clear (if you are a novice cook especially, you could use more detail) the experienced cook will do fine. So what's my beef? The same voice the other reviewers found "hilarious" I found grating, sophomoric and self-conscious, a sense of trying too hard to be clever. My reaction to this was so strong it put me off. But, as you can see, others liked this very thing, so there you are. In writing, as in cornbread, I reckon preferences and opinions run strong. To each his or her own.

Read it and eat!.......2003-04-15

I confess to not having tried a single recipe yet, but this book gets five stars from me just for the read. Jeremy Jackson is the next Edouard de Pomiane - very, very funny, surprising, smart, literate, and enthusiastic. Even if you hate cornbread (one word, note), you must have it. Buy it, read it, laugh out loud, and preheat your oven to 350F, because you, like me, will be dying to pup a butter-slathered hunk of cornbread down the hatch before you get half-way through.

A Pipe for February: A Novel (American Indian Literature and Critical Studies Series)

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A Pipe for February: A Novel (American Indian Literature and Critical Studies Series)
Charles H. Red Corn
Manufacturer: University of Oklahoma Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Historical | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0806134542

Turkeys, Pilgrims, and Indian Corn: The Story of the Thanksgiving Symbols

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Barth's Book Informative and Accessible for Young Students

Turkeys, Pilgrims, and Indian Corn: The Story of the Thanksgiving Symbols
Edna Barth
Manufacturer: Clarion Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

Customs & Traditions | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0618067833

Book Description

The story of the most truly American holiday and the development of its symbols and legends.

Each of our holidays has its own familiar traditions: Trick-or-treating on Halloween, eating turkey on Thanksgiving, waiting for Santa Claus on Christmas, exchanging cards on Valentine's Day. But where do these customs come from, when did they begin, and why do we continue to observe them?

In the engaging blend of careful research and lively prose that has earned her books a lasting place on the holiday bookshelf, Edna Barth explores the multicultural origins and evolution of the familiar and not-so-familiar symbols and legends associated with our favorite holidays. Full of fascinating historical details and little-known stories, these books are both informative and engaging. Festively illustrated by Ursula Arndt, they are now available again in hardcover as well as paperback editions, featuring new, eye-catching jacket designs, and fun holiday activities inside the paperback covers. Each book includes an annotated list of holiday stories and poems and an index.

Customer Reviews:

Barth's Book Informative and Accessible for Young Students.......2000-06-06

This non-fiction work of Barth's is one of many she has written on the origin of holidays. It is written on a level for children, but with facts that adults may not know, either. Barth exposes many myths about clothing, etc..concerning the Pilgrims and Native Americans one may not know. Except for some minor editorialization regarding religion, this is an outstanding book.

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