Jack Jackson Books

Diving: The World's Best SitesI gave this to my husband for a Christmas gift. He loved it. I don't dive but he loves it. He just got certified last year and this book gives him a lot of ideas on where to go for good diving. This book is only useful to someone who dives. Not for a vacation guide.

A really good book with great pictures. A source of inspiration if you're planning a diving trip. Obviously written by someone who really enjoys diving and knows what he's talking about. A lot of practical advice too. A must for divers!

i want to know what site for the best diving. because i just pass the diving license.

This is a good book for divers. It lists all the pertinent info about each site (i.e. water temp, sites to see, best time to visit, etc). I would definitely recommend buying this book. The pictures are awesome!

Read it cover to cover Christmas day-and over and over since

This book serves as an excellent guide to those wanting to dive around the many wonderful sites in the Philippines. I just wish the author included a more in-depth write-up on Apo Reef.

On the basis of the information in this book we planned our dive trip to Bohol. It turned out that everything written was accurate and reliable, and we had a great trip. Like the rest of the series, nicely laid out with excellent photos.

Very good. I bought the book after my first dive trip to the Phillipines and found the information regarding those sites to be very accurate. I am now using it to plan my second trip.

This book is an excellent guide to select the best diving spots in the Philippines. The book has great photos and give you detailed descriptions about the best places to dive. The informations match the described spots exactly (like the sites around the island of Cebu). Additional information about the marine environment is helpful. This book is a MUST for everyone interested in diving the Philippines.

The book is a great reference for people who are planning to or thinking about diving in the Philippines. It provides a good description of what to expect with regard to general dive locales, as well as specific dives.

The book works, and works well because of several reasons.

First, it provides (still valid) contact information on dive operators and lodging providers in the different areas, as well as providing general ideas on price range for these operations.

Second, the book gives a good briefing and summary of the different dive locales in the Philippines, providing pros and cons, as well as tips that are useful to the would-be traveller.

Third, the book provides a near-comprehensive listing of specific dive sites in the different locales. While the underwater environment changes, it does so slowly, and practically all assessments and descriptions still hold. It provides info on what to expect in terms of depths, surface conditions, currents, as well as what to see. It also provides a quick rating in the form of stars, as to how good the sites are. These are highly accurate, although some have been under-rated, in my opinion.

Fourth, the photography is great. The book has been designed well, and is quite engaging. Full-color photographs are peppered throughout the book.

The text is getting old, but that doesn't change the fact that it holds its promise well of talking about the dive sites in the Philippines.

I can understand why no one has come up with anything to replace this book. It would be a tough to top or even match. Mr. Jackson has done a really great job of this one.

After diving the Philippine Archipelago, I can only understand and appreciate the book more and more.

taj d.

a philippine divemaster

Hands down, the greatest cookbook ever written (take that, Better Homes & Gardens!). If you've never been to Threadgill's, you've never truly experienced the bounty of God's green earth - but you can get a fantastic taste of it with this book. I cook something from this book almost every day, which may not mean I'm the healthiest soul alive, but I sure get my veggies! If you thought a down-home cookbook was just a bunch of artery-clogging recipes for fried vegetables, you're only 10% right. In addition to fabulous recipes, this cookbook is actually an entertaining book to sit down and read! Trust me, it will find its way to that revered shelf in your bookcase that's reserved for the family Bible and the baby books. Yee hah!

This past haunt of Janis Joplin is a true Austin institution. And, so is it's food. But don't expect recipes similar to the Lutece cookbook or Cooking with the Master Chefs. These are master chefs of the home grown type. Their chickenfried steak with cream gravy is well, artery clogging delicious. The recipes are simple to follow, the ingredients are few and the taste fabulous. And, the narrative relays some great memories of Threadgill's. I've enjoyed cooking these dishes for other expatriated Texans and we're in heaven!

Homesick for Texas, and all those good eats? This is the book for you. It is much more than a cookbook, it is a piece of Texas to be read and savored. Having eaten at all the locations of Threadgill's and having spent many (too many, according to my college transcript) at Armadillo World Headquarters, opening this book was like a trip back home. Sure, there are the receipes for all the Threadgill's classics, including all the vegetable dishes. Sure you can try to make the wonderful chicken fried steak, but intertwined in all those recepies is the history of Threadgills, and the people who were there. You learn the thinking behind the place many called home, you remember the brand names of products that made Texas cooking great. You also get a bird's eye view of the Texas music scene and all the colorful people who inhabited that time and place. Threadgill's kept me from getting too homesick when I left Dallas, and moved to Austin. This book keeps me from getting too homesick for home.

As someone who moved from Austin to Washington, DC years back---and whose friends still ask me why, I don't have an answer. But I can tell you one of the things I miss is Eddie Wilson and Threadgill's. It's not fancy, it's not meant to be, but as Eddie says "This is not a lobster taco". This isn't fancy food, this is just good food, something you could eat every day, something that doesn't require an engineering degree to assemble and a degree in civil engineering to balance on the plate.

While many underground cartoonists of the `60s and `70s focused their stories on counter-cultural issues of the time, writer/artist Jack Jackson headed in the other direction, bringing the stories of early Texas personalities to life. COMANCHE MOON tells the epic story of Cynthia Ann Parker and her famed son, Quanah. Set during the final days of the Comanche, who once roamed from the Kansas Territory to central Texas, it is a fascinating and moving historical portrait.

At age 9, Cynthia Ann, the daughter of Anglo settlers, is kidnapped by Comanches during a raid in 1836. Renamed Naduah, she adapts to their ways, marrying a chief and bearing a son, Quanah. Quanah rises from an uncertain beginning to become a powerful and feared warrior, and the last chief of the Quahadi Comanche. But his most startling transition was yet to come, as he adopted the white man's ways and introduced Native American culture to white society.

Jackson pulls out all the stops for this graphic novel. While I recall studying Quanah Parker and these events in my Texas history class many years ago, it was not presented with this level of detail. This is certainly not your typical read-in-an-hour trade paperback - you actually have to focus, and you may even learn a thing or two if you're not careful. Jackson's historical sources are numerous, events and characters are clearly identified, and maps are abundant. I especially enjoyed his casual presentation of the Comanche's speech, almost as if they were using modern slang. The art is very detailed, at times almost approaching photorealism. Jackson takes great pains to accurately depict historical figures from daguerreotypes. At times, it resembles the early black and white work of his contemporary, Richard Corben.

With all that said, there are certain parts that should appeal to the purely underground comic fan - Jackson's depictions of Quanah's mystic vision, his first experience with peyote, and his death resemble psychedelia straight out of Zap Comics. Great reading, fully educational, and very cool.

This is the finest and most intricate graphic book (not quite a novel) I've ever read. The illustrations reach levels of beauty and artistry seldom seen in this genre of storytelling. Comanche Moon (not to be confused with the Larry McMurtry novel of the same name) tells the end times history of the Comanche peoples, with emphasis on their great leader, Quanah Parker, and his mother, the "white Comanche" Cynthia Ann Parker. The story of the Comanche's' violent way of life, their struggles against the whites in Texas and across the Southwest, and of the brilliant leadership of Quanah Parker, are rendered in a way that provides as much meaningful information to a reader as most text-only tales of the Comanche and the brutal period of the mid-1800's thru the 1870's. This is a great (though often sad and bloody) segment of North American history, and this rapidly-paced, carefully produced graphic re-telling of it is a more than worthy read.

Historically accurate biography of Quanah Parker, last Commanche to live free on the LLana Estacata of Texas. Also bio information about his mother Cynthia Ann Parker, a European girl captured and raised by Commanches as their own, later taken back by her white family by force after she had married and had children as a Commanche woman. Lots of information regarding the everyday life of Commanche people. Told in a graphic novel format , the drawing is not particularly beautiful, but the story and accuracy make up for it. My copy is bound in psuedo leather, looks nice. Highly recomended for adults or older adolecents. Especially those who are intellectually curious, who may or may not have trouble with standard written texts.

Almonte's Texas is a fascinating historical study of the role of Col. Juan N. Almonte, who was sent to Texas by the Mexican government to determine whether the northern territory would be lost to North American colonists. His detailed, secret report with his recommendations for keeping Texas under Mexican control, as well as the fifty letters he wrote during his inspection and his role as special adviser to Santa Anna, are all revealed in this astounding primary source that astute captures a crucial perspective on history itself.

The wordly Almonte is an observant guide to the world that was Texas y Coahuila in the mid-19th century. Sent by Santa Ana in 1834 to inspect and report on the troublesome Texas, Almonte did that in the form of a secret report. He also wrote letters about the situation and when Santa Ana marched into Texas in 1836 Almonte was with him. This book contains the report, letters and the diary, along with maps and excerpts from other contemporary sources. The accompanying commentary allows even the novice to understand the material and appreciate its importance to Texas history.

Fuller's "The Best of Jackson Payne" is an ambitious novel. Were it concerned with a man's life and especially a jazz life, it would be interesting. The fact that Fuller tackles some harder questions of philosophy in a fluent literary wrapper, makes the book remarkable, and a remarkable achievement. Some of these questions include: How can we know another person? Is "truth" a composite? What explains great art?, and the great question of aesthetics -- is the life of an artist relevant to an understanding of his art?

Slowing down to wrap the reader in the reality of these issues, never so bluntly posed, Fuller brings to life Jackson Payne, a composite rendering of a saxophonist, and full-featured, full-blooded man in the world. We find in Payne a Faustian character at once difficult and sublime, no matter where or when we find him. He is a hero in Korea, later deep in heroin addiction, in prison, performing at the top of the jazz world, betraying some, loyal to others, complex, conflicted, modern, an enigma to himself. A Bronze Star, "that should have been Silver," seems a small reward for the wounds that Payne takes from Korea. If jazz is the symbol of Payne's existence, so is Korea. The hard side of Payne -- Korea, junk, prison, his murder or assisted suicide, always stand in balance to his achievement in art -- some great records, some good relationships, some great performances, a cult around him as a supremely gifted experimentalist.

Jazz fans will puzzle more over who served as the model for Payne than the manner of his death, which Fuller builds to full-blown mystery status by the final pages. Certainly Payne is drawn from several jazzmen's biographies, and to have made him anything other would have denied Fuller the opportunity to explore generally the jazz life, especially that of the 1945-75 era of which he writes. It is hard to escape the belief that nonetheless the author had someone in mind, just as love songs are said to be about a particular person. Clues are scattered throughout the text, for example, Payne has a low point where he opens for some sixties rock groups - music "so bad that it shouldn't even be heard through a wall." Sounds like Archie Shepp, or Pharoah Sanders, just as earlier passages suggest Dexter Gordon, Coleman Hawkins, or Sonny Rollins. But there are just too many other clues --- an R & B background, mastery of every playable scale, rhythm, syncopation, extended solos (some lovely, some excruciating) the reach to the sublime spiritual level, and a wife a lot like Alice -- to make it that hard to hazard a guess. If Jackson Payne isn't mostly John Coltrane, his music has got to be the closest suspect. For jazz followers this is satisfying to a great degree. Fuller allows Payne to live another 10 years beyond the life of Coltrane, and projects what direction his music might have taken. In Payne he hints, toward the sweeter, certain of its roots, self-referential but not arcane, with a profound human touch. We have always wondered where Coltrane would have taken jazz, in Jackson Payne, Fuller gives us a sophisticated, informed guess. There is a lot of jazz criticism laced in the book. Fuller dismisses Miles' late experimentation with rap beats, which provides another clue that jazz development suffered the end of its most interesting evolutionary line with Coltrane's death.

But this is all conjecture. The recreation of Payne's life is all conjecture. After Joyce, and Gide, and William S. Burroughs, time-splicing, multiple points of view, and the unreliable narrator are no longer pioneering literary novelties. In the post-modern narrative these techniques are no longer employed for effect, but for thematic purpose. Fuller uses all of these approaches to build his largest theme, a theory of knowledge, within several sub-texts, not the least interesting of which is the nature of jazz, its origins, and its "meaning." Jazz is, and is not, a metaphor in this book. The time-splicing, syncopation, lyricism, painful and blissful reality of the tale are difficult to mistake as an extended literary solo that literally builds on the basis of Payne's life in the first 200 pages, to the free form explosion of the final third of the book.

If "The Best of Jackson Payne" sounds like a compilation CD, so in fact it is, --- a distillation of a complicated, pained, sad, but ultimately triumphant life. Fuller reaches across race, age, class, gender, and truthfulness in the narratives of the informants he quotes in the book. The remarks of his alter ego, Quinlan, a musicologist who is stiving to re-create the life and death of his hero Payne, are italicized in the latter part of the novel. Un-italicized replies and commentary comes from informants who for the most part have been introduced earlier in the text. Some informants are not introduced, but their identities are intuited. The reader begins to understand the reference and the shifting points of view. Now you are playing jazz with the master.

One ought to forgive the author his day job. He writes convincingly of shooting galleries, jazz charts and clubs, and has an ear for the profane end of the world where pain and suffering turn to art. We forgave Charles Ives and Raymond Chandler their careers in insurance. Fuller runs the risk of being mistaken for a Pulitzer-winning editor and publisher of a major newspaper and not the very great novelist he has become.

If you know someone who watched Ken Burns' "Jazz" and now wants to know what jazz is REALLY about, or if you want a companion to Ashley Khan's "Kind of Blue," if you don't have a CD player but want to hear jazz, are interested in philosophy as literature, or literature as literature, this is the place to start.

A great read for anyone interested in North Carolina history! I bought copies for my whole family!

The cover with its big "Diving with Sharks" title and the prominent picture of a great white shark suggests that this is a book about sharks, and it is, but that is not all it is. The smaller print says "and Other Adventure Dives," and then at the bottom, "includes practical advice for experienced divers." In fact, only about half of the editorial part of this excellent book is about sharks. The other half is about all sorts of other cool sea creatures and adventures like wreck diving, caverns, caves and places with strong currents. So be aware of that if all you seek is shark information.

The book's author, Jack Jackson, is one of the world's great adventurers. Though he started out as an industrial chemist, his soon directed his sights on traveling, mountaineering, writing and lecturing all over the globe. He made over 20 expeditions in the Sahara Desert, and over 160 treks and journeys into deserts, mountains, rainforests and seas around the world, and that includes places far, far off the beaten track.

The picture shown on his website is that of a grizzled graybeard, precisely what you'd expect a seasoned explorer to look like. Yet, despite his vast experience with things and places most of us can only dream of, Jackson never lectures or pontificates, nor is he excessively obsessed with arcane minutiae of whatever he sets his sights on. He is an eminently practical man who always sees the big picture, and one who truly knows how to present his adventures in large-format, compelling books with superb photography, many illustrations, sidebars, and whatever else it takes to really convey both the essence and the depth of a topic. When I first got into Scuba, his "Complete Diving Manual" was instrumental in giving me a good foundation and understanding of all aspects of diving. You wouldn't necessarily expect that from a world traveling explorer who also wrote on non-diving related adventures such as "The Asian Highway" and a book on choosing, using and maintaining go-anywhere 4-wheel-drive vehicles.

"Diving with Sharks" is divided into six sections. The first, and largest, is on sharks. Here, Jackson describes sharks, diving with sharks both in steel cages and among them, different kinds of sharks, and different locations. He covers Blue and Mako Sharks, Great Whites, Hammerheads, Raggedtooth Sharks and adds a section on shark feeding sites as well as aquarium shark dives for those who'd rather approach those magnificent creatures in the safety of a confined space. The large 8-1/2 x 11 format of the book and the heavy, glossy stock are used to the max with numerous excellent color photos. On each large two-page spread, you not only get to read Jackson's informative, firsthand descriptions, but you can also see exactly what it's like.

A smaller section entitled "Diving with Gentle Giants" covers Whale Sharks and Basking Sharks, and this wouldn't be a Jack Jackson book if the section did not include a superb illustration that shows the relative size of all those sharks and whale sharks, with a human diver and a Blue Whale providing perspective. Next comes a colorful, informative and again superbly illustrated pot-pourri on all sorts of sea creatures, from Dolphins to Mantas and other rays, turtles, jellifish, potato cod and even sea snakes.

Now Jackson moves on to diving in different kinds of environments. First underwater adventures in strong currents in places like Palau, Cozumel, Cocos Island, and the Philippines. Then it's on to wreck diving, with descriptions of a good dozen major wrecks and wreck sites around the world. In typical Jackson fashion, this includes sidebars on diving with scuba pioneer Hans Hass and an overview of extended range/technical diving. A final section is on closed overhead environments and this one, again, covers everything from generic information on cavern and cave diving to equipment to the description of half a dozen of the world's great overhead dives -- again accompanied by fantastic photography and extras like a superbly rendered cross section illustration of the Wookey Hole sump/cave system in England.

"Multimedia" glossies are often lightweight coffee table books with lots of pictures and little substance. Jackson never falls into that trap. He and his publishers are masters in using words, pictures, typefaces, photographs, illustrations and related graphics to make topics come to life and turn mere reading into a spell-binding experience.

-- C. H. Blickenstorfer

Details the origin and purpose of the breed, differentiating them from the Fox Terrier and the numerous white terriers called Jack Russell Terriers. Also covers history, UK and US standard, caring for the new puppy, breeding, showing, judging and working the terrier, and health care and the law. 281 pp. / photos / UK

This is not just another 'how to' book on sea kayaking. Johan Loots has very carefully put together a 'manual' that covers everything a beginner should know from choosing a kayak and equipment to getting out on the water with different paddling techniques, recovery and rescue. Also covered in excellent detail are sections on seamanship and navigation, and planning a trip (served me very well!!). The last chapter covers great destination ideas from around the world, that could get anyone caught up in this fantastic sport!!

Of course, any new paddler should always get professional instruction when they first start out, but this book provides all the technical back-up to get you started. This glossy book has excellent step by step instructions with photos and diagrams for you to follow. I have read 'Sea Kayaking - The essential guide to equipment and techniques' at least a dozen times and still find it an excellent reference tool. The author also gives advantages and disadvantages for different types of equipment and ways of doing things, so you get to make informed choices.

I first purchased this book before getting started in the sport and found it an essential guide to equipment and techniques (as the title suggests) and still use and recommend the book to others. Being an avid reader of anything on the subject of kayaking, I still think this is an excellent read and highly recommend it to all those wanting to 'start out' in the sport!!