Praying for Sheetrock : A Work of Nonfiction

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful read!!
Review: Once I picked this book up, I could not put it down. The way Greene chose to set up this book and play out the story is excellent. She laid out the characters and the scene in such a way to allow the reader to draw their own conclusions to the facts, giving equal voice to all parties. Though the heroes and villians are obvious, she doesn't portray them in a straight forward way. It opens with a complete and thorough description of everything surrounding the actual story, which gives the reader the feeling that they are there - a part of it - before all is said and done. The research she did on the subject to offer a tale told with all sides is commendable. Equally Fascinating and Intriguing!!

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful read!!
Review: Once I picked this book up, I could not put it down. The way Greene chose to set up this book and play out the story is excellent. She laid out the characters and the scene in such a way to allow the reader to draw their own conclusions to the facts, giving equal voice to all parties. Though the heroes and villians are obvious, she doesn't portray them in a straight forward way. It opens with a complete and thorough description of everything surrounding the actual story, which gives the reader the feeling that they are there - a part of it - before all is said and done. The research she did on the subject to offer a tale told with all sides is commendable. Equally Fascinating and Intriguing!!

Rating:
Summary: "Spend five dollars, get you a free throw of the dice."
Review: PRAYING FOR SHEETROCK is the story of a corrupt "courthouse gang" along old State Route 17 on the coast of Georgia -- where pecan and peach stands fronted for gambling shacks to snare Yankee tourists -- and about the overthrow of the old regime by the political awakening of the majority African-American community. The book was a 1991 Finalist for the National Book Award and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. It won the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize, the Lillian Smith Award, the Quality Paperback New Voices Award, the Annisfield-Wolf Book Award, and the Georgia Author Award. It was recently named one of the Top 100 works of journalism of the 20th century -- the "J List."

Rating:
Summary: The villains seemed way too nice.
Review: Relatively well written book, but I had to put it down about half-way through. For one thing, the villains seemed way too nice (the author definitely portrayed them that way) and the heroes were somewhat too evil (criminal activity seemed rampant). I did enjoy the fact that the gun ownership of the poor people in McIntosh County was essential to their gaining increased rights. It was clear while reading that an unarmed poor populace has no political rights and no way to gain them.

Rating:
Summary: The villains seemed way too nice.
Review: Relatively well written book, but I had to put it down about half-way through. For one thing, the villains seemed way too nice (the author definitely portrayed them that way) and the heroes were somewhat too evil (criminal activity seemed rampant). I did enjoy the fact that the gun ownership of the poor people in McIntosh County was essential to their gaining increased rights. It was clear while reading that an unarmed poor populace has no political rights and no way to gain them.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best books I've read in years
Review: That about says it. My uncle from Gerogia remembers the stories of the southern area and the shame of the events. It's hard to determine which is the greater strength - the story itself or the characters. The citizens of Macintosh county override all the obstacles of bigotry, oppression and generations of poverty by simple faith. "When there's nothing left to do but stand, you just stand..." Excellent read.

Rating:
Summary: remarkable story of heroics in a cowardly time period
Review: This incredible story of heroism amidst the abyss of opression and segregation is awe inspiring.

Rating:
Summary: This tale hangs about you like Spanish moss
Review: This tale hangs about you like Spanish moss--quiet, phospherescent, and pervasive. At first, I wondered where she could be taking me. The characters and anecdotal tales seemed to be jumbled and never forming a conclustion. But I stayed with it; it wasn't until the last 60 pages that it all came together for me and really became rewarding. Greene's writing style and tone is soft, rather like sipping a mint julep--and yes, by the time I finished it, I had "a little color in my cheeks."

Rating:
Summary: This tale hangs about you like Spanish moss
Review: This tale hangs about you like Spanish moss--quiet, phospherescent, and pervasive. At first, I wondered where she could be taking me. The characters and anecdotal tales seemed to be jumbled and never forming a conclustion. But I stayed with it; it wasn't until the last 60 pages that it all came together for me and really became rewarding. Greene's writing style and tone is soft, rather like sipping a mint julep--and yes, by the time I finished it, I had "a little color in my cheeks."

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful history of a little battle for civil rights.
Review: What a wonderful work! Melissa Faye Greene has brought together a passion for scholarship and a mellifluous writing style. Darien, Georgia is hardly the place to begin when one studies the civil rights movement in America -- but Melissa Faye Greene shows us the impact of this revolution in rural America, a story too often neglected in favor of stories of urban desegregation. Beautifully written, Ms. Greene elucidates the struggles of blacks and whites to come to terms with a changing social reality, and cast off decades of de facto dictatorial rule by a white aristocracy. In the process, both white and black come to see that what unites them is greater than what divides them, even though what unites them is not always to their liking