Iowa Books

This is a book any one can enjoy. It is loaded with wonderful black and white photographs of a unique way of life in Iowa in the early 20th century. These are beautifully detailed photos reprinted from old glass plate negatives that you will pour over and come back to time and again. Schambaugh was a talented artist and a pioneer in early photography.
Foerstner has not only presented us with a book of unique photos, but has included a well-written documentary of Shambaugh and the life of photographers of her day. I think readers will also enjoy her insight into the Amana Colonies and their history. Most people only know the Amanas as a tourist mecca of shops and confuse them with the Amish. Just as Shambaugh was allowed a unique opportunity to enter and share an almost closed society - now readers can also share in the lives of a group of people that leave you reevaluating your life.

I love this cookbook! The recipies are great and there is more than just pork recipies. Also from the same Junior League is their new cookbook First Impressions: Dining with Distinction. This is a must have. The carmel cashew cheesecake is sooo good and easy! I recommend either of these books. Keep up the good work Junior League of Waterloo-Cedar Falls. I can't wait for your next cookbook!!

Thanks to Gordon McEwan, the enigmatic Pikillacta site in the Cusco Valley is now better understood. His logic and reasoning for its purpose, use, and function fits well with the known facts.

McEwan lays out an easy-to-read and well-referenced description of the Wari Empire in Chapter 1. One does not need to be an archaeologist to appreciate his writing. I enjoyed Chapter 2 on Pikillacta and its architecture with many first-class figures and photographs.

Somehow, in Chapter 3, McEwan is able to describe his many years of excavations at Pikillacta in a way that makes one feel that he/she is there and with a writing technique that allows a layman to experience the thrill and excitement of disco very. Armchair archaeological travelers will enjoy Chapter 3.

Chapter 4 tells the reader about the minute details of the architecture and construction, even to the extent that the floor construction methods are understood. The average reader will enjoy McEwan's step-by-step explanation of how he computed the labor needed to construct Pikillacta; so much that one wonders when the Wari had time for anything else.

A very special treat in McEwan's work is Chapter 5, which was written by Dr. Alfredo Valencia Zegarra, a well-known and highly experienced Peruvian archaeologist. This chapter describes the Wari water development related to Pikillacta with details on the many long canals and aqueducts. Valencia then goes into the capability for food production from the irrigated lands.

Mary Glowacki, in Chapter 5, tells us about the pottery from Pikillacta. She provides drawings of the pottery to help the reader enjoy the chapter and to learn how to identify difference types of pottery. Glowacki goes on in Chapter 7 to discuss time dating of Pikillacta using radiocarbon techniques, along with ceramic data. She pinpoints some Wari presence in Cusco in the 6th century and extensive activity in the 7th century when Pikillacta was commenced. The 8th century saw continued building at Pikillacta and additional building in the Lucre Basin. Glowacki writes that while Pikillacta grew, other parts of the Cusco area felt the impact of the Wari. She describes the primary base of operations and interaction with the Tiwanaku Empire at Yanamancha.

Then, according to Glowacki, Wari activity at Pikillacta showed construction ceased and numerous doorways were sealed to prevent access. Finally, Pikillacta was totally abandoned, perhaps as late as AD 1155.

Chapter 8 covers the human skeletal remains found at Pikillacta with description of craniums, dental conditions, and general estimate of the age of the individual at death.

In Chapter 9, the subject of arsenic bronze is described, along with the metal artifacts found by the excavators that included needles and tupus.

McEwan pulls it all together in his Chapter 10 conclusion. Here, McEwan states that Pikillacta was built at the command of the Wari, construction began around AD 600, and occupation likely existed between AD 550 and 1100. He describes kinship and ancestor worship. McEwan emphasizes the importance of ancestors and the need to care for mummies because they were responsible for food, clothing, water supply, land tenure rights, health, and fertility.

McEwan describes the famed two sets of turquoise-colored stone figurines found by looters in 1927. Each set was comprised of 40 figurines dressed in distinctive costumes and headgear. A photograph shows one of the remarkable sets. He also, in his own words, opines on the experience of being conducted into the Pikillacta complex and losing all sense of direction.

The 1995 discovery of Huaro that is 17 kilometers east of Pikillacta on an ancient highway is mentioned and described as a major regional center. He has made a case for the function of Pikillacta as being a center for the worship of lineage ancestors and a repository for hostage lineage heads (mummies) and huacas.

McEwan concludes in Chapter 10 that evidence for interaction of the Wari with the Tiwanaku is slim, but that there was 500 years of Wari imperial domination in the Cusco region that surely had a major impact on the formation of the Inca state.

Overall, this book on Pikillacta by Gordon McEwan and his talented contributors is good reading; it tells a fascinating story of ancient Americans; and it provides the results of a long and distinguished field and office effort at revealing the reason and function of a very important Andean archaeological site in the Cusco Valley.

McEwan's book is valuable to the Peruvian people in many ways; it helps them better understand their rich heritage. For practical economic purposes, it should help the National Institute of Culture in the development of Pikillacta as an important tourist attraction. The site is spectacular in its size, form, and setting. It has lots of potential, along with nearby Tipon and Chokepukio, to provide additional major attractions in the Cusco area.

What I like about Pikillacta is that it represents a major Wari state in the Cusco area. It helps one to realize that the Inca had a lot of help in creating their empire; they had much to borrow from their predecessors.

I recommend McEwan's book for armchair travelers, amateur archaeologists, and serious Andean scholars. It provides a platform for an additional round of studies of the Wari influence on the formation of the Inca state and the building of Inca Cusco.

Josephine Herbst's neglect is an incredible injustice. She is truly one of the most perceptive novelists of the century. This volume is especially valuable for its insights into the motivations of a character trying to take advantage of rising capitalism in the reconstruction era. This is the historical novel as serious literature. The first in a trilogy about the Trexler family it should be ranked with Dos Passos' U.S.A. and Farrell's Studs Lonigan as some of the most insightful literature of the thirties.

This slender but concisely written study of the depiction of women in American fiction offers a unique thesis concerning a much broader concept, which is the way in which Americans have evolved something Charlotte Wright calls "the beauty system." For some time now, many voices (both staunchly feminist as well as non-sexually-politically aligned) have noted that contemporary American culture has in the past fifty or so years become almost maniacally obsessed with the notion of feminine perfection. That perfection seems to be represented as much in the manifestation of sexual and aesthetic qualities ordinarily associated with female beauty as it is a reflection of the character and personality of the individual herself. Wright points out thatthe bromides and aphorism about physical beauty being superficial and shallow measurements of an individual's nature belie a deeper and far more deeply ingrained notion that "handsome (or beauty) is as handsome (or beauty) does." But far from laying the blame for this "cult of beauty" at the feet of advertisers or even at the gate of one of Hugh Hefner's mansions or in the pages of Sports Illustrated's swimsuit issue, Wright delves much deeper into the cultural totems that have given rise to the notion that beautiful women are, by their physical presence, imbued with virtues and desirability-as people-that far exceed what might actually lie beneath the ideal figures and batting eyelashes, the flowing tresses and creamy complexions of so many heroines of our national mythology and popular culture. Beginning her study with early nineteenth century American literature, Wright starts from a premise that there is a common perception that there are no "ugly" American literary heroines. Indeed, she avers that the most common assumption is that female characters who are less than pretty have little or no appeal to readers. This, she avers, is both incorrect and misleading. "Judging from the number of published examples I found," Wright states, "readers have long responded to the less-than-lovely heroine; it has been the critics, the scholars, the literature professors, and the anthologists who have ignored her." This would seem to be a familiar lament of the feminist critics, except that Wright's discoveries as they are revealed through her study bolster the notion that "ugly," as a descriptive nomenclature for a heroine, is so often equated with some negative personality trait or character flaw-in women-that one might assume that, to reverse Keats' famous line, "ugliness is a falsehood and deception." She notes that spinsterism, divorce, widowhood, even merely a long life can be a contributing factor to a female character's ugliness, although there is no logical correlation between such situations and physical appearance. From this beginning, Wright divides her discussion into three parts. In Part One, she discusses the "Nature of Ugliness," examining the physical characteristics Americans have traditionally associated with feminine plainness and lack of physical appeal. Here, she establishes the precedence American fictional writers have given to feminine physical appeal. Part Two deals with the effects of ugliness, especially on the relationships female characters form with other people, their roles in the "community" of their fictional settings, and the ways in which a number of writers have used a woman's lack of physical appeal as an elemental tool in both character and plot development. In Part Three, "Ugly Women in Contemporary American Fiction," Wright homes in on the issue of beauty vs. ugliness in the works of a number of major American authors writing today. She discusses the ways in which the stereotype of the ugly or plain woman has been used to authorial advantage, sometimes in an ironic way by writers who have tried to emphasize the importance of character and personality over physical appearance. Her conclusion is that many American authors, "by use of the ugly woman character, are exploring the ironies and inequalities inherent in the beauty system." Wright's study is blessedly void of volatile sexist language and defensiveness that has marred so much of feminist critical theory. She examines both male and female authors, noting how both tend to operate under the same set of assumptions when presenting beautiful or ugly women to their readers. She spends a good deal of time with Hawthorne, Hemingway, and Faulkner, but she also examines Wharton, O'Conner, and Walker in her litmus tests of how these authors share a use of the stereotype. The primary value of this study is to provide a dimension to the interpretation of American literature that may well bring it to a closer relevancy to American culture. Wright has defined a significant American social totem here, one that has been manifest particularly the final decades of the twentieth century and has placed far more value on image than on substance not only in the depiction of women (and men) but also in the perception of almost every institution in American life.

Poetics of the Hive is a gracefully written inquiry into the ways in which a ubiquitous metaphor has shaped our understanding, over time, of what it is to be human. The book is no mere catalog of insects in literature, as fascinating as that is in its own right; the author proposes a new theory of poetic reworking, an "evolutionary biology" of the minor literary forms that makes a major contribution to our understanding of the creative process. Hollingsworth's ambitious but responsible scholarship, which will appeal to the educated layperson as well as the specialist, is rarely found in literary studies these days and should serve as a recuperative model. In sensitive readings of representative works ranging in time from the Iliad to A. S. Byatt's Morpho Eugenia, he shows how literature has formed the images we think and see by-the "bread of the mind"-images occurring so commonly that we've ceased to wonder at their origin and meaning, or even to question their "naturalness." After reading this book, you will see your own examples everywhere, and see them anew.

In clear but evocative prose, Hollingsworth examines how the metaphor of people as insects has been used variously to figure human scope and limits, from the bitter poignancy of our relation to the gods "as flies to wanton boys" to the ironic power of Balzac's Rastignac poised above the "humming hive" of Paris, a power we reenact when exploring the electronic "hive" of the Internet. One of the most interesting chapters discusses the use of social insects to depict Africans (Conrad), aliens (Wells and Star Trek's Borg), and dinosaurs (Crichton) as possessing a threatening, inexplicably intelligent Otherness. This alienating device, however, appears as frequently in the form of the cockroach to represent the existential plight of alienation from oneself, as by Kafka and al-Hakim. This book has helped me to think about how the languages of literature and film are derived from our shared visual experience-such as peering into an anthill or carelessly crushing a "bug" beneath a shoe-but given rich cultural and historical significance. As an English teacher, I also prize this book for showing me how "the classics" are relevant to our own moment, how they exert continuing influence upon contemporary writers from diverse cultures.

I recommend this book to everyone who is interested in literature, film, or psychology-or anyone who values fine writing and fresh thinking. The high quality of the writing is matched by the book's physical beauty, making it well worth the asking price.

This is a terrific read. The book pulls together several key cultural elements to explain tidily the Hollywood Novel genre. Very compelling. Also, for an academic text, the book reads more like a well-structured, authoritative commentary than the typical "here's what you need to know to consider yourself knowledgable." If you find the genre interesting, or even just the era which gave it life, you'll enjoy this book.

"Portrait of America" was a popular video documentary series in the mid-eighties, a product of collaboration between Superstation/Turner Broadcasting Corporation and Ambrose Home Video. Well-researched, each video is divided into 5 segments covering most unique historical, social, and cultural aspects of each state. Watching such an interesting documentary, each being roughly about 50 minutes long, without advertisements and other interruptions seems to be a privilege in these days!

The workbook really brings out the important points to remember from the text. It also ensures that the students begin to be able to pick out legal issues on their own. I highly recommend it as a companion when using Hamilton's text.

This book provided an excellent introduction into the basic principles of prairie reconstruction. The book is concise, informative, well-written, and leaves the reader with a new appreciation of the prairie habitat. I purchased this book as an introduction to establishing prairie habitat on my own farmland, which is currently in the government "CRP" and "wetland restoration" programs. It enhanced my education and helped focus my efforts.