Recently, we acquired "Storm Over the Land" by Carl Sandburg a one-volume history of the Civil War. It’s a reprint of a book published more than 60 years ago, and it is oriented toward military history.

"Storm Over the Land" is extracted from Sandburg’s famous, four-volume study, "Abraham Lincoln: The War Years." For the sake of brevity and sequence, the author rewrote large sections of the Lincoln material and also added some new text.

The result is a very readable overview of one of America’s greatest, and most complex, dramas. Sandburg observed that this story, "if it could all be known and told would take ten times longer to tell than it took to happen." Fortunately for the reader, Sandburg did not take that approach.

The Sandburg book is very reader friendly. It has only 30 lines per page and large and easy-to-read type.

Recently a school in West Virginia contacted me about purchasing a single-volume history of the Civil War for a high school class. The school reviewed several of our books and then chose "Storm Over the Land," because it is easier to read and costs half as much as some of the recent university press studies of the Civil War.

Many Civil War studies and hundreds of other books that focus on America’s military history from the colonial times to the present are available at the Jesse Stuart Foundation Bookstore, 1645 Winchester Avenue in downtown Ashland.

Jesse Stuart Foundation books are used throughout the educational system. Last week, the Jesse Stuart Foundation enjoyed visits from two Ashland Community and Technical College reading classes. All of the students had read Jesse Stuart’s book, "The Thread That Runs So True." Jesse would be proud to know that his books are still serving students and teachers in his beloved Eastern Kentucky homeland.

I am very please to report that in 2004 the Regional Readers read twelve books about Kentucky and/or Appalachia, and they are enthusiastically planning to continue in 2005. Our group is not meeting in December, because everyone has such a full schedule, but we’ll resume in January with a discussion of Jim Wayne Miller’s novel, "His First, Best Country." I invite readers of "The Daily Independent" to join our group which meets monthly on a Tuesday evening from 5:45-7:00 pm. Call the Jesse Stuart Foundation at (606)326-1667 for more details.

Happy holidays from your friends at the Jesse Stuart Foundation.