Kansas Books

I have read three of Nolan Carlson's books and I liked them all. I liked how he split the adventures of the boys into the chapters. I think that you Carlson is the only person who will start a secqil(spelling?) at the same place as the first book starts. I hope he writes more stories like that because those are the only one I will keep reading after I say I will stop. I really was interesting in his books.

In 1935 Kansas, Brady, 13 and his sister Sarah, 6 cope with many hardships. Their mother suffers from extreme asthma and their father's farm and livelihood are threatened by droughts and the Depression. Sarah also suffers from a severe form of autism; she is nonverbal and engages in typical self stimming behaviors. Brady describes his sister's condition as a disease, which it is not. Autism is a neurobiological condition that people knew very little about at that time. The term "autism" was coined in 1943 by Leo Kanner.

Their mother's illness worsens; desperate, their father Jack decides to take her to California where he feels she will recover. The Kansas dust storms aggravate her condition. Meanwhile, arrangements for Brady and Sarah to stay with their foster grandfather, Sheriff Bud and their Aunt Tilly have been made. They live in Sentinel Kansas, a day's drive from the family farm. The Sheriff had raised the children's mother and her brother after they were abandoned at ages 4 and 6.

Sheriff Bud and Aunt Tilly are delightful characters, as is Eddie, the friend Brady makes in Sentinel. Eddie has a pet crow who travels everywhere with him; in time, Brady comes to love the bird. The pair form a bond against the town bully, Raymond Blackburn. Raymond's father, Sam runs the town bank under a thundercloud of suspicion and he keeps bootleg liquor "rotgut" in his cellar. His son Raymond is the town bully. Fed with a sense of entitlement, he harasses Eddie and Brady. Raymond finally gets what he has coming when he mocks Sarah to Brady.

Sam Blackburn owns an illegal distillery; Kansas in 1935 was still a "dry" state, meaning that liquor was still forbidden. Although Prohibition officially ended in 1933, a few states remained "dry" after 1933. Blackie, Eddie's crow helps Eddie and Brady find a way to help put an end to that distillery. Using resourcefulness and guts, the boys, armed with their crow find a way to help clear up the sky of Blackburn's bootleg clouds.

Eddie, the second youngest in a large family copes with grinding poverty and abuse and an alcoholic father. The boy's mother works for the Blackburns. They withhold her wages, so Eddie and his brothers steal their chickens. Since Blackburn presses charges, Sheriff Bud reluctantly takes the boys in. Shortly after the boys' arrest, Eddie is the only child remaining in the home as their mother took a younger daughter and fled the father's drunken rages.

Aunt Tilly is truly a delightful character, as is Sheriff Bud. She prepares meals for all the inmates in the town's tiny jail; she takes Eddie in as much as he is willing to stay. To her credit, she does not fall for Raymond's fawning over Sarah; she tells Brady that the bully did not fool her one iota.

This is a beautiful story that might make you cry. It is about friendship; expansion of family; acceptance and genuine human kindness. Sheriff Bud does not condemn Eddie's father; rather, he describes him as a boy, before "alcohol got to him" and that the abuse did not come from an unloving father, but that it was "the alcohol that does not care." It is he comes through for the boys along with several freight hoppers and families down on their luck.

Readers learn about "Hoovervilles," communities of makeshift hovels named after President Hoover's "trickle down theory" of economics; hobo camps along bodies of water and freight hopping. Readers get a feel and taste for small town America in the Heartland during hard times; wet and dry states and the times this story was set. This book is a masterpiece that will resonate long in the hearts and minds of readers. This is a must read!

Pam's beautiful illustrations and personal stories make this a unique and inspirational book. Her quilts are fun and the instructions are clear. Wonderful book for those who enjoy making quilts, or those, like me, who enjoy looking at them.

If you've ever watched the University of Kansas Jayhawks play basketball you'll want this book. It's filled with memories of recent players and those who started the program under Phog Allen, Dick Harp, Ted Owens, Larry Brown, Roy Williams and Bill Self. Some reminiscences included are of James Naismith at Lawrence, the father of basketball. Reading this book is almost as good as being in Allen Fieldhouse and hearing the thousands cheer on the Jayhawks. Read about players and coaches who left KU for the NBA, how the KU players were recruited and how those players feel to this day about their experience on the hardwood at KU. Almost entirely upbeat with a few sour notes thrown in for good measure. By the end of the book, if you're a true blue Jayhawk you'll be bursting with pride and yelling, "GO BIG BLUE!"

If you're into watching, then by all means check out the VHS video, Century of Tradition: KU Basketball, available from Amazon.

When I was in high school in Samoa we would often hang out at the Rainmaker Hotel's pool after school ended every day. The hotel pool was the place to be, and the fact that you couldn't swim there unless you were a guest, or a "member" of the pool (which cost a few bucks a month, which of course none of us could pay). One of our pals worked in the dive shop poolside, which of course enabled us to hang out there whenever we wanted. One day, we were loafing as usual when one of us noticed a fortyish American woman, quite attractive, sunning herself and talking to a young boy, who we discovered was her son.

She looked so familiar! One of us finally figured out, "Hey, she's on TV...an actress!" The kid confirmed this for us. "Yeah, my mom is on lots of TV shows," he said matter-of-factly. "My dad is a movie star." The boy's name was Christian Peppard (son of George "Hannibal" Peppard of "A-Team," and famed Hollywood actor ("Barefoot in the Park,' "Blue Max," etc)...and his mom, the woman we were staring at, was the famed stage and TV actress Elizabeth Ashley.

So what does this have to do with the book? Turns out that Elizabeth and her son were visiting Samoa and accompanying the political writer Nick Von Hoffman, and "Doonesbury" creator Garry Trudeau. This little gang of mainland luminaries were involved in a "research" project, looking into life in the last of the American colonies, none other than our own American Samoa, for a projected book to be published back in what von Hoffman called "The Nifty Fifty."

Nick's book is an interesting glimpse into daily life in America's Outback, circa 1975. It's not a pretty picture. And, even though the Feds have pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into the island economy, the place is still an economic wasteland. There are a few bright spots in more recent years, with the opening of mainland style retail businesses (and the inevitable invasion of McD's and KFC).

Excerpts of this book originally ran in Rolling Stone (I kept the issues for years before they finally disintegrated), and it was several years later, after I had left the islands for college on the mainland, that I finally found a copy of this book. I still have it, and thumbing through it, it's interesting to note how much life in Samoa has changed...and how a lot of it hasn't.

I really enjoyed this book. Kate Ross is a very strong character in this book. Hiram is a hoot!!! IF YOU LOVE A GOOD WESTERN YOU WILL LOVE THIS ONE.

I can not say enough good about this book.....for think of it more as what Little House on the Prairie should have been if it was interesting....and what Tom Sawyer and Hunk Finn would have been if Mark Twain was a good writer.

I consider this a fabulous work, because it is first hand history of the wife of General Custer in the year after the Civil War. It is the excitement of times on a broad scale and the narrow joy of a married couple coping with life.
It honestly is a conversation between Libby, the reader with literal colorful commentary by her black maid, Eliza.
You will read how black history really was and not what is written now.

You get to see women in all their supposed helplessness at times, but when a tragedy strikes time and again their real courage and strength comes out.

I have yet to read anything from Libby whether it is her personal letters...to the absolutely heart wrenching account of the day she found out her family was slaughtered at the Little Big Horn which did not show one of the most charming and delightful personas ever to imprint upon the written word.
So as Mrs. Dockter, my 5th grade teacher always read to us after noon recess....if you have children or grandchildren....read to them...and if you have grown children get them this book as it impressed me enough to recommend it.

This book should be required in every school as a reading assignment along with Dickens and Irving.

Terra Incognita is a collection of black and white large format images of various aspects, grand and minute, of the North American landscape. This work establishes Steve Mulligan as a true heir to the mantle of Ansel Adams, Minor White, and other luminaries of the "black and white" photographic medium. Mulligan is able to see what most of us cannot, and is able to translate that perception into images of light, shadows, and darkness which touch the soul and heart as well as the eyes. Experience this book!!

Stoff has written an excellent work on a group of women in Russia who
played an important role during a turbulent time in the country's
history. Long forgotten, this work brings these women to life through
a combination of meticulous archival research and superb writing.
A welcome contribution to the field of research on Russian military
women.

What an inspiring book. The facts and history of our country are extraordinary. I could have never lived as Margaret lived, what a strong woman. She was also a quilter, which I find important, since I am also! It was inspiring to read in a diary format. It seemed so real.