The View From the Grass Roots by Gregory J. Rummo
Millennial Mind Publishing, 1589821017, $22.00

Enjoy the View! , JULY 7, 2002

    Picture Erma Bombeck and George Will having a child who grew up, moved to New Jersey, and got a dog named Chewbacca. This is probably the best way one could describe Gregory J. Rummo.
   
    Readers in the New Jersey area will know Rummo from his many years as a regular contributor to regional newspapers, where his work tackles a variety of topics, personal and political. The Amy Foundation, an organization dedicated to promoting Christian-influenced journalism in secular newspapers and magazines, has seen fit to bestow a number of awards on Rummo's work. Some of these pieces are featured in The View From the Grass Roots, a collection of ten-plus years of opinions on the Clinton administration, profiles in courage, and timely observations of the country and government in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.

    The book's title, Rummo explains in the introduction, is meant to emphasize Rummo's position as a writer. He does not proclaim to be an expert on the topics about which he writes, but rather he calls shots as he sees them -- as an ordinary husband, father, Christian, and American citizen observing life. To call Rummo "ordinary" would be a misnomer, however. A perfunctory glance at the contents of View presents the reader with a look into a life both blessed and challenged, a life appreciative of God's creations - everything from the rough beauty of rural New Jersey to the child growing in a mother's womb. Rummo's style is common sense and easy on the eye; a column on the logistics of coaching his son's soccer team may illicit a few chuckles while at the same time warm a reader's heart as Rummo explains how his son refuses to let his deafness become an obstacle while playing. His thoughts on past and present Presidential administrations may, depending on one's political leanings, leave a reader nodding in agreement or shaking his head.

    Whatever your view on religion, the government, and life in general, it is well worth the time to see these things from Rummo's point of View.

                    --Reviewed by Kathryn Lively, author of Little Flowers

SEPTEMBER 9, 2002

Passion and opinion - a strong alliance, September 9, 2002
Reviewer: Brenda S. Weeaks (see more about me) from United States
Gregory J. Rummo is an award-winning columnist - a man with loads of opinion and a passion for writing. His book, The View From the Grass Roots is an anthology of his collected works... The columns are about various subjects. Let me give you a list of the chapters.

Family Life
Deaf Culture
Getting Old
America, Then and Now
The Great Outdoors
The Weather, the Environment and Global Warming
The Clinton Administration
The 2000 Presidential Election
Man, Woman, Birth, Death, Eternity
The Lighter Side
Missionaries and Missionary Adventures
An Evangelical View
Terrorism on American Soil

See what I mean? Passion and opinion - a strong alliance.

Rummo is a family man. He writes in length about his loved ones. One chapter is about his second son, born deaf. I was blessed in reading his positive attitude toward his deaf son and parents'-in-law and the lengths he personally went to to communicate with them.

Rummo tends to take a Christian view in his work. Although the Word may not be prominent in all his work, it's obvious that it's a moral ground from which he speaks. His political view is Conservative and will most likely rile his dedicated opponents, but they, in turn, will have to admit he writes with respect and honesty. Being a Conservative, I agreed with most of what he had to say and recommend anyone and everyone pick up his book and give it a try. Something in there is bound to speak to you.

                           --Reviewer: Brenda S. Weeaks (see more about me)

JULY 5, 2002 "An eclectic anthology of the author's favorite commentaries that have appeared in various newspapers over the past decade. He writes about his love of family and country, political and cultural issues, and takes firm stands on moral issues such as abortion."                   --Independent Publisher

SEPTEMBER 5, 2002

Gregory Rummo Serves us Food for the Soul, August 29, 2002
Reviewer: Alice C. Bateman (see more about me) from Calgary, Canada
Perhaps if you took selections from several volumes in the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, you would come close to what Gregory J. Rummo has accomplished with his 'View From the Grass Roots.' This Award-Winning Columnist has compiled his first book, where we can travel with Gregory through Missionary work to Little League Soccer, and all points in between. Chicken Soup for the Soul with a dash of cayenne pepper. A must read selection!

                    --Alice C. Bateman, Managing Editor The Writers-Voice.com, The World's Favourite Literary Website