1 comments about Looking in Windows: Surprising Stories of Old Des Moines (Iowa Heritage Collection).

1. Most interesting as I had just come from the Iowa state fair and wanted to know more about the city. Will gift this book to a friend who lives there. Everything was fine with the book. Another great read is the Adventures of the Thunderbolt Kid, Bill Bryson's work about his childhood in Des Moines, so "Looking in Windows" is a compliment. It's short articles that the author wrote about city history when he was working for the local paper (Register). It contains sometimes amazing Midwest frontier history. Of course many on the coasts deride beautiful Iowa and the Midwest in general while theocratic demagogues falsify and overblow its real or imagined values out of proportion to the reality of those who live there. This book brings it all down to earth.

No comments about Iowa Pride.

No comments about German Settlers of Iowa: Their Descendants and European Ancestors, revised edition.

5 comments about Four Midwestern Sisters' Christmas Book.

1. My wife and I both loved this book--it brought back so many fond memories. Shortly before Christmas, this year, I saw a sequel to this book--but now, I can't remember the name of it; or even if Holly Burkhalter wrote it. Can anyone out there help me with the title / author to the sequel to Four Midwestern Sisters Christmas Book, please?



2. Although I grew up in Indiana and am a few years younger than these sisters, I can relate to many of the stories in this book. I read it every December. I also love the recipes - simple, basic, good food. It's one of my favorite books. : )



3. One of my own sweet sisters gave this book to me for Christmas several years ago. I read it every year to remind myself not to be crass about Christmas and to fling myself joyously into secrets, sharing, and good spirit. The book is a gift to all who celebrate old fashioned values.



4. Disclaimer -- I'm the daughter of one of those Four Midwestern Sisters and as such, I'm clearly biased. That said, this book is magical. I was only a child when my mother and aunts wrote it, but I have grown up steeped in my family's traditions, many of which are captured in The Book (as we call it). I read it each and every year, and this year will read it to my own daughter for the first time. It is a loving meditation on the spirit of Christmas and importance of family. Enjoy.



5. Like the majority of the other reviewers, reading this book is a holiday tradition for me. I too was born in the 1950s and grew up in the Midwest, but sadly I have no sisters. This book for me is a way to relive my youth but also to enjoy some holiday experiences I missed out on. I truly get a magical feeling reading about this family preparing for the holidays, visiting friends, making gifts for each other, attending church ... maybe I will read it a second time this holiday season, it's a quick read and I know parts of it almost by heart. There is no other book quite like it. Highly recommended.

No comments about Journey from the three bridges: The immigration story of the De Jong family from Arkel, the Netherlands.

No comments about Main Street Revisited: Time, Space, and Image Building in Small-Town America (American Land & Life).

No comments about Iowa: The Middle Land.

No comments about Schoolwomen of the Prairies and Plains: Personal Narratives from Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska, 1860S-1920s.

1 comments about Iowa Stereographs: Three-Dimensional Visions of the Past (Bur Oak Book).

1. The book is very well proportioned for viewing stereographs which are presented full size and intact. Subjects and photographers are well indexed. Very pleased with my copy, an excellent companion to Darrah, Zeller, and Waldsmith.

5 comments about Sunday Afternoon on the Porch: Reflections of a Small Town in Iowa, 1939-1942 (Bur Oak Book).

1. This book is fun..besides getting a glimpse into a nicer time, you get an insight of the man who took this amazing spontaneous photos. Also some facts. I hope there is another book published with more photos.



2. Sunday Afternoon on the Porch: Reflections of a Small Town in Iowa 1939-1942 is a wonderful showcase of black-and-white photography capturing the ordinary men and women of small town Iowa in the wake of the Great Depression and the beginning of World War II. The candid photographs range from "On Duty", an unforgettable snapshot of a uniformed officer with one hand on a baby's stroller, to "Cheerful Classmates", capturing a happy day in school, to "Migrant's Salon" showing a man getting his hair washed by leaning over a bowl while a bucket of water is poured over his head, and more. The text offers additional insight into these timeless glimpses of day-to-day life, as well as some snippets of poetry. A wonderful gift book, especially recommended for connoisseurs of historic slice-of-life American photography.



3. The pictures were taken between 1939 and 1942 and show what small town and farm life was like in that era. I do wish that there were more pictures in the book, but if you want a look at life during that era, this would be a good addition to your library.



4. As the front porch picture on the cover suggest a simpler slower time for life in America. Great pictures! Would recommend this book to people of any age. All of the pictures have a story of their own and you can put yourself in their shoes with just a little imagination. Buy this book you won't regret it.



5. On the strength of these very favorable reviews I got a copy of the book. What a disappointment! The photos are no more than snaps of life in the small town of Ridgeway, Iowa and of Everett Kuntz's family and friends. By the nature of this kind of photography many of the those in the book are soft focus, badly composed or just dull but of course this kind of material is precious and a keepsake to those in the photos but to others the significance evaporates.
   
   I thought the book looked very unimaginative with far too much white space but even with the rather bland photos it did have the potential to sparkle. As a publication designer I would have created a scrapbook feel to the pages leaving the few really good photos as whole page images and the rest blending together with local maps, postcards, high-school yearbooks and any sort of household and commercial printed ephemera from the late thirties.
   
   The sub title: Reflections of a small town in Iowa, 1939-1942, is true but it wasn't the photographer's aim to capture reality too closely. Iowa, with a large agricultural community, suffered terribly during the Depression. The poverty and desperation was covered by four photographers from the Farm Security Administration and their photos can be seen in Unknown Iowa: Farm Security photos, 1936-1941. The sixty-seven photos in the book capture rural and town life in a much more creative and heartfelt way than the bland snaps in 'Sunday afternoon on the porch'.
   
   
   ***LOOK AT SOME INSIDE PAGES by clicking 'customer images' under the cover.