Product Description
This book is a series of inspirational, true storieswritten by a Texas lawyer about the people and events that have mostinfluenced her. It captures those influences in a way that is oftenhumorous, and sometimes very serious. The book is designed to causethe readers to contemplate the notable people and events that havemade all the difference in their own lives, in the hope that thisintrospection will prove pleasurable. Many of these stories touch onexperiences from law school or the practice of law, and they amount toone lawyer's retrospective on the lifelong search for truth that weall undertake. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Buy this book.You won't be sorry.
I have been Nancy McCoy's legal assistant for over 12 years.I have come to know her as a unique, warm and generous friend.I'll be honest.When Nancy told me she wanted to write a book, I thought she was crazy. I may have even told her so. Once I saw the finished product, I was blown away.The book is truly as warm and unique as she is. And, no, she did not tell me to write this review. I should have written this a long time ago. I highly recommend this book.Nancy needs to eat.

Recommend for everyone searching for truth, love, and laughs
Nancy McCoy's Butterflies Do Not Sleep in Hot Tubs, A Lawyer's Tortured Search For Truth is a great read - and not just for lawyers. The stories in her book share truly diverse nuggets of wisdom and laughter. From the silly inside jokes of a long, loving marriage to the laughter shared among co-workers to a fable about a dysfunctional family in the true Grimm style, McCoy explores the range of relationships with their ups and downs. She inspires others who have experienced failure and disappointment by sharing her own setbacks and subsequent successes. She pricks readers' consciences as she reveals her own awakening to social responsibility. And when she does share stories from her experience as a lawyer, she efficiently translates the law jargon for the uninitiated.
Above, all, Butterflies... is a very entertaining book. The chapters are short self-contained stories that even the busiest person can enjoy a bite at a time. Each character comes alive through the author's storytelling and is both real and familiar to the reader. I have already shared this book with several of my family members and would recommend it to everyone who is searching for truth, love, and laughter in life.

Spiritual and Irreverant, also charming and enlightening
Butterflies is about an intelligent and introspective lady lawyer's search for the truth in her life and her chosen profession--the law. From the moment you read the title you realize that you must go on. You are intrigued by both the cover and the title. Then my suggestion is to read the titles of each short story or vignette--there are thirty-nine all together. This too will draw you in. Next, read her acknowledgements at the end, they are hilarious and entertaining as well. This should prepare you for what you are about to receive.

Butterflies is thoughtful and poignant, and yet it captures the very essence of what makes life interesting and funny and worth living. It captures the 'small good things' that keep us going. Everyday moments are not lost in this spiritual and extraordinary revelation. Nancy McCoy's characters are people we all know and identify with. It will leave you with a bitter-sweet feeling and a desire to meet the characters and the author.

There are remarkable sagas and crusades that will inspire you long after you have read Butterflies. You will come to the realization that the author is a good person with good intentions and a heart as big as Harry Chapin's. You shall become familiar with this ballad singer once you read Butterflies--if you are not already.

Nancy McCoy uses terms like recovering Catholic--very funny to those of us who were or still are of this faith. She inquires, "Where were you?" which refers to your status when JFK was killed.

I can't remember a time when I laughed out loud so much during the course of one read. Nor have I been forced to review my own life and circumstances before, during and after a novel.

Loving all the stories, it's difficult to choose one as my favorite. Let's just say that the one I identified with was "The People Who Like to Jump." Well, I'm like Nancy McCoy. I like to be with the people who like to jump. You may have to be an attorney to get the gist of this particular story once you've read it, but I don't think so. Butterflies should have a general appeal to all readers.

The greatest compliment I can give Nancy McCoy as an attorney/writer/human being is this:You are an inspiration and one-of-a-kind individual. Once you were made--they broke the mold.

Inspiring, yet Truthful.Encouraging, yet Real.
This is one fantastic book and one intriguing author. I've read manybooks, and ever since I began practicing law the only types of books that Ihave been able to get to have been inspirational, miracle-filled stories. Mostly because I need the positive feedback somewhere in my life.However,I have always felt removed from those stories. McCoy offers me a touch ofinspiration, mixed in with incredible wit and soft-hearted humor thattouches upon everyone's heart, not just a law-infested individual.Herstories are provocative enough to make you think, kind hearted enough tomake you smile, and encouraging enough to make you want to read one pageafter another. I haven't enjoyed a more thought-inspiring, smile-inducingcollection of stories.This is truly a book one should get and enjoy, overand over. Kudos to McCoy for allowing readers a chance to enjoy what theyare reading while learning, reminsicing and hoping.

Humorous and Poignant Stories
Nancy McCoy is a fantastic writer.She speaks directly from her heart and has crafted a collection of stories that are both humorous and poignant.I enjoyed the book and would recommend it wholeheartedly. ... Read more

Product Description
Lawyer-turned-teacher Virginia Donohoe and her former lover, Jack Daniels, take up the cause of a Jewish high school football player and his friend who object to "captive audience" prayers at practice which publicly condemn all non-Christians. In this powerful, stark, and explosive story set in the fictional hamlet of Bernard, Texas, lines are drawn in the sand with lightning speed. While the lawyers plan legal action and silently re-examine their lost relationship, the town plans a "spontaneous prayer demonstration" at a high school football game. Meanwhile, the two boys and their families are ostracized and threatened. Anger muddles the line between fundamental principles and ideological intransigence as tensions build toward a stunning, unforgettable conclusion.The Heart Twisters boldly explores the themes of religious extremism, the power of love, and the renewed importance of respecting minority religious views in a post 9/11 world. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Superb
In The Heart Twisters, author Nancy McCoy takes you to a fictional world about real life in present day rural America. The truly unique story is set deep in the Bible Belt of Texas where the opposing forces of radical, post 9/11 patriotic Christianity and the constitutional right of freedom of religion clash with the peace and welfare of an entire community at stake. In the wake of it, an emotional tornado ensues. The sheer power of the telling of the story brings you to know the characters like real life friends. Virginia Donohue or ?Virgie?, in particular ? A veteran lawyer turned high school teacher ? takes a stand against religious bigotry and picks the ?good fight,? finding true love on the way. What is the cost of defending your freedom in the tidal wave of religious fanaticism? The Heart Twisters is surely the measure. Experience a full spectrum of emotions when you read this story: admiration, humor, exhilaration, intrigue, astonishment, passion, sadness and joy ? a roller coaster ride through the best and the worst attributes of humans in real life. Never was a book so hard to put down until the story plays out in the end. Encore, Nancy McCoy!

' Heart Twisters' bravely addressesreligious intolerance.
Sometimes it takes a `Heart Twister' like 9/11 or the tragedy described in Nancy McCoy's novel for people to realize what is really important in their lives. Through eloquent language and a constant thread of humor provided by the pithy wit of her vivid protagonist, McCoy brings to the forefront what humans have struggled with since their succession to planetary dominance: religious intolerance. Heart Twisters provides both a timely and enjoyable read. ... Read more

Product Description
Chapters: Elaine Mccoy, Nancy Greene, Pamela Wallin, Marjory Lebreton, Carolyn Stewart-Olsen, Céline Hervieux-Payette, Catherine Callbeck, Sharon Carstairs, Anne Cools, Landon Pearson, Brenda Robertson, Nancy Ruth, Lorna Marsden, Joan Cook, Raynell Andreychuk, Marie Poulin, Sheila Finestone, Lise Bacon, Pat Carney, Lois Miriam Wilson, Mobina Jaffer, Yonah Martin, Cairine Wilson, Thérèse Casgrain, Andrée Champagne, Elizabeth Marshall, Peggy Butts, Lucie Pépin, Lillian Dyck, Florence Elsie Inman, Joyce Fairbairn, Linda Frum, Pierrette Ringuette, Vivienne Poy, Suzanne Duplessis, Shirley Maheu, Mabel Deware, Ione Christensen, Marilyn Trenholme Counsell, Joan Fraser, Nancy Hodges, Thérèse Lavoie-Roux, Sandra Lovelace Nicholas, Ethel Cochrane, Solange Chaput-Rolland, Joan Neiman, Janis Johnson, Erminie Cohen, Rose-Marie Losier-Cool, Viola Léger, Jane Cordy, Pana Merchant, Libbe Hubley, Marian Maloney, Iva Campbell Fallis, Lorna Milne, Doris Margaret Anderson, Thelma Chalifoux, Marianna Beauchamp Jodoin, Betty Kennedy, Nicole Eaton, Judith Seidman, Margaret Jean Anderson, Marisa Ferretti Barth, Mira Spivak, Nancy Teed, Maria Chaput, Florence Bird, Margaret Norrie, Claudette Tardif, Eileen Rossiter, Nancy Bell, Madeleine Plamondon, Dalia Wood, Mary Elizabeth Kinnear, Martha Bielish, Olive Lillian Irvine, Isobel Finnerty, Josie Alice Quart. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 208. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Elaine McCoy, QC, BA, LL.B (born March 7, 1946 in Brandon, Manitoba) is a Canadian senator from Alberta. Senator McCoy was appointed to the Senate by Governor General Adrienne Clarkson, on the recommendation of Prime Minister Paul Martin, on March 24, 2005. She sits in the Upper House representing Alberta as an Independent Progressive Conservative. Unless she resigns or passes away, ...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=1643897 ... Read more

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Journey with the immigrant settlers who made the United States a wonderful patchwork of common goals. Celebrate as love overcomes the tests brought on by a strange and untamed land. Various authors. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Comfortable read
Lofty dreams of a new and better life lured untold thousands to America. Among those "huddled masses yearning to breathe free" are four immigrant women facing the challenges of the untamed New World. Will they have the strength and faith to meet the trials ahead?

Life in the wilds of Florida as a ready-made wife and mother must be better than living on the streets in Boston, but not everyone is cut out for pioneer life. WIll Corinn be willing to say, "I Take Thee, a Stranger," in order to survive the New World?

Paloma wants to find her sister in Tucson and convince her to move back to Mexico, but a handsome blacksmith keeps barring her path. Can Blessed Land be found among the Americans Paloma despices?

Kiera feels she must return home to Ireland when her dreams for a new life have died, but she has found a new friend who wants nothing more than to show her that God still keeps His promises. Are Promises Kept in America?

Hannah's new hope seems to have come in the form of her widowhood, but now another man is trying to dictate the future she has entrusted to God. Will Hannah hear Freedom's Ring?

If you want a good wholesome book to sit down by the fire or outside in the sun, this is the book for you. I read it in one day and was sad to have it end. Kept a smile on my face and joy in my heart. ENJOY!
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Inspirational/Romance A three in one collection of historical romances. ... Read more

Product Description
The contributors to this volume have been faculty participants in Greensboro College's Ethics Across the Curriculum Program or distinguished guest speakers.

The essays in this volume address a broad range of issues, such as ethics in the Bible, Christian ethics, the Methodist tradition, public education, government, the golden rule, covenantal thinking, physician assisted suicide, game theory, and other issues from across the curriculum.The introductory article explores the nature of ethics itself.Each article includes questions aimed to promote further discussion of the issues raised.

The dust jacket, "A Sea of Legends," is a photo of an original painting by Ray Martin. ... Read more

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Exhibit Catalog from the Boston Institute of Comtemporary Art, 1981 of the painitngs of Arthur B. Davies ... Read more

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George Walker Gilmer 2nd Virginia Cavalry-Pvt. E. J. Chilton's Palmetto-How Did This Cowboy Spur Get Here-Relic Hunting in the 21st Century-The Tale of the Wooden Minie Ball-Robert Henry Hendershot Hero or Poseur-A Rare New York Sword Belt Plate ... Read more

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new ... Read more

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Gifts from Battery M-An Album of Prairie Horsemen-Big Digs at Brandy Station-Confederate to the End-The Buck Brothers Wartime Bowie Makers-Finds From the Attic-Confederate Leather Black or Brown-Smith Patent Shoulder Straps ... Read more

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From Darin Strauss, the bestselling author of Chang andEng (A Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year), comes theunforgettable story of "Kid" McCoy: boxer, jewel thief, scam artist,and the most married man in America. The Real McCoy is afascinating mirror of the tumultuous backdrop of America at the turnof the century.Amazon.com Review
Deadpan comic and grandly imaginative, The Real McCoy, Darin Strauss's recounting of the life of a legendary grifter, is a sparkling, memorable novel. Strauss (author of the highly acclaimed Chang and Eng) tells the story of Virgil Selby, or "Kid" McCoy, turn-of-the-century flimflammer, welterweight champion, and the speculative origin of the famous titular catch phrase. After witnessing the death of a small-time boxer named McCoy, young Selby adopts his name and reputation and leaves his Indiana home to achieve renown. Taking up residence in Louisville, McCoy befriends brilliant Chinese con man Jonnie Gold, who teaches McCoy the twist fist fighting style and the art of the flimflam. The naive and monomaniacal McCoy soon departs for New York City, where he uses his newfound trickery to conquer the boxing world, marry a Broadway starlet, and become a minor celebrity and the origin of a national phenomenon. However, McCoy's perpetual mythmaking catches up with him, revealing the cost of his attempts to turn a life of fiction into immortality.

Strauss has created a resounding personal narrative and cultural allegory with The Real McCoy. The hopeful, starstruck McCoy embodies the obsessive American tendency toward self-improvement and reinvention, and demonstrates the consequences of these ideals. Like its hero's successful though obvious scams, The Real McCoy is wonderfully entertaining fiction that reveals no small amount of truth. --Ross Doll ... Read more

Customer Reviews (15)

con man McCoy
The first thing that struck me about this book is the tone.It immediately brought to mind an old-time radio announcer--pitch-perfect for this fictionalized saga of Kid McCoy, a scrawny prizefighter from the late 1800s and early 1900s.These are pre-radio times, though, and the details of the time and place transport the reader from dreary small-town Indiana to backstreet St. Louis to the seediest areas of New York and beyond.The Kid's real name is Virgil Selby, but he takes the name McCoy from another boxer who dies from injuries incurred in a fight.The "new" McCoy is more colorful than Chang and Eng in Strauss's earlier book, as he's a flimflam artist on the side.(I love that word, and this book is full of others that evoke the era.I found myself singing "Mack the Knife" while reading it, because the setting was so tawdry--another good word.)In fact, the cons that he performs with his fat Chinese mentor, Johnnie Gold, are some of the most entertaining scenes in the book.The irony is that the term "the real McCoy" may have referred to Kid McCoy, but in the book his life is a complete sham; he's a liar and a bigamist and even obtains his welterweight title by scamming his opponent.Likeable he is not, but I couldn't help hoping that he would eventually straighten himself out so that he could hang on to his true love, Susan Fields.As in Chang and Eng, Strauss embellishes the lives of historical characters and leaves us wondering what's true and what's not.In this case, I think that very little is true, but who cares?

More style that substance
I have to agree with some of the other reviewers here who opine that while Strauss definitely has a way with words, this novel left me wanting a little more.The book presents a fictionalized account of the fighter "Kid McCoy", a bare-knuckles brawler and scam artist from the beginning of the 20th century.I thought the novel would paint a real vivid picture of turn-of-the-century big city life, but ultimately the novel lost steam amid crazy twists and turns of the plot, until its wacky ending.

The scenes of young Virgil starting out his career and assuming his identity (as "McCOy") on a fateful train trip were the highlight for me, as well as his curious first marriage to a poor midwestern girl who never had a clue what made her husband tick.In that respect she was kind of like the reader, since we were similarly in the dark surrounding most of McCoy's motivations.Once McCoy made it to the big time (with his bizarre Oriental side-kick Johnny Gold), I rapidly lost interest.

Had the novel given a better glimpse of New York City at the turn of the century, rather than an occasional reference to Madison Square Garden or a famous hotel, I might have enjoyed it more just for the setting.Instead, while often impressed at Strauss' writing style, I found the book to be a pretty forgettable tale written by a talented author yet to fully hit his stride.

The Unreal McCoy
Darrin Strauss's second foray into historical fiction is much like his first, (CHANG AND ENG) taking the bare bones of a true story and then totally changing it to comment on other aspects of human nature. Virgil Selby starts out as a young man in search of something more than life is offering him. By taking on the identity of a fighter named Kid McCoy and following the advice of a Chinese flim-flam artist named Johnnie Gold; he sets out to make himself into a great man. The real problem is that Virgil's new life is based on a lie and of course it falls apart. Sort of a rags to riches to rags tale that could have been so much better if Strauss had stayed closer to McCoy's actual life; which fans of boxing history know had more than a few twists and turns to it, or at least skipped the ridiculous character of Johnnie Gold, who is so over the top in his Machiavellian plans that he is seen as blatantly unbelievable. Strauss is most successful at portraying McCoy's love for Susan Fields, an actress, who McCoy is constantly winning back after pushing her from his life with his lies.Strauss does a nice job recreating the rural and urban America of the early twentieth century, but Johnnie Gold and the finish with McCoy's plan for one last score are just so far-fetched they distract from the other pleasures of the novel. An interesting read, but like CHANG AND ENG, the idea for the novel is better than the execution.

Style over substance but an engaging story
The Real McCoy is a fictionalized account of a turn-of-the century boxing champ and flim flam man who is possibly the source of the phrase, he's the real McCoy.
Author Darin Strauss writes with a unique style that will not appeal to all readers. Indeed sometimes I felt that style was winning over substance and I wished for a more straightforward narrative.In the end I wasn't quite sure all the wonderful parts of the book equally a fully realized whole.I definitely would have liked the book to have taken a different turn at the end.
All that said, this is a delightful story that serves as a wonderful allegory both for what Strauss calls '"artificiality" and on following one's destiny as opposed to shaping it.
The early 1900's is a rich area for fiction, with so much we think of as modern (cars, telephones, movies) just developing and so much of the old world still ubiquitous (carriages still drawn by horses, bare knuckle boxing).Strauss takes advantage of these opportunities and the characters that then abounded.He tells the story of young Virgil Selby who leaves small town Indiana, assuming another's identify to both box and swindle.He meets and marries many women, one of whom is actually the love of his life.
I had a few problems with the story but it's impossible to not like a book that has sentences like this:"Ryan went down like an old wino paid a dollar to perform Hamlet's death scene."Great stuff, that!

What a find!
This is a great book.Ignore the reviewer from Alabama who found it "Difficult to read"It's understood that anything more than 1 syllable is challenging there. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Mississippi Business Journal, published by Venture Publications on January 17, 2005. The length of the article is 702 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Trying to add things up tough without a dime to spare.(Mississippi Musings)
Author: Nancy Anderson
Publication: Mississippi Business Journal (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 17, 2005
Publisher: Venture Publications
Volume: 27Issue: 3Page: 6(1)

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