Country Folk Medicine: Tales of Skunk Oil, Sassafras Tea & Other Old-Time Remedies is a book that will bring back hundreds of memories for any person raised in a rural area. For those of you that were never around home remedies, let me vouch for the accuracy and credibility of this book. My grandma and ex-mother-in-law have used many of these remedies in my presence and have told of using most of the others.

Elisabeth Janos is a vocational trainer and an oral historian. This is her first book.

The author decided to focus her study on the folk remedies of semi-rural New England and New York at the turn of the century. She spent four and a half years researching this book by interviewing elderly persons at senior centers and in nursing homes, and collected more than 3,000 interviews and over 7,000 remedies.

This book is a combination of verbatim stories, as they were related to the author, and Janos's narratives that explain circumstances or offer information about the circumstances of that time. Her segues between the stories are brilliant and easily move the reader forward with smoothness and consistency. There are no abrupt changes between the stories or scenes.

A disclaimer in the front of the book does warn against using these folk remedies and advises readers to seek the services of a medical practitioner. Janos means for this book to serve as (1) cultural preservation, (2) medical historical preservation and (3) entertainment for the reader, although she does admit in her introduction that many readers will likely be appalled by some of the remedies.

The difference in the speakers gives this book a quality that is difficult to describe. It is almost like sitting down in a large room filled with people and listening to them describe the home remedies that were used on them. No one author can ever achieve this type of writing, no matter how much they practice. The personalities of the speakers are often beautifully displayed in their stories. Their commentaries on the treatment ordeals are hilarious.

Janos has done a wonderful job of grouping the remedies into chapters and sections. Her 12 chapters are: "Some Unusual Healing Substances," "Respiratory Problems," "Digestive Problems," "Musculoskeletal Problems," "Neurological Problems," "Eye, Ear, Nose, Mouth, & Throat," "External Injuries," "Skin Conditions," "Influenza & Fevers," "Problems of Infancy & Childhood," "Female Concerns" and "Preventive Medicine." She has included a short bibliography.

Country Folk Medicine is one book that absolutely must be discussed. When you read this one, you will feel compelled to discuss it with your friends and family. It is almost as if it bubbles around inside you, comes to a boil, and produces so much steam that must vent or burst. That is a rare quality in a book.

Get this one. You will not be disappointed. You will find yourself discussing it again and again.