Kansas Books

This book is the best resource that I've found to finish and improve my garden here in Kansas. This book has some nice pictures, but they are not particularly useful. I don't even care though b/c this book is LOADED with great gardening advice. I've read dozens of gardening books, but I learned a lot of new things from this resource. It is especially helpful in terms of plant selection-choosing plants that grow great in our region. I like that it gives more choices than the Sunset "top ten" book. I think this guide may be a little outdated in terms of listing new cultivars, but I didn't consider that a problem, either.

Rachel Snyder takes a practical approach to the unique problems of the plains. Instead of telling me what I can't plant, she gives me myriad options for creating a long-lasting, beautiful garden. What this book lacks in beauty, it makes up for with loads of great advice and information about plants that will survive scorching heat, high winds and cold winters. I highly recommend the book for beginning gardeners.

THE GREAT WHALE OF KANSAS is a tall tale about an 11-year-old boy living in Melville, Kansas, who loves to dig holes. Big holes.

"I believe there is nothing, absolutely nothing, half so much worth doing as simply digging a hole," the unnamed narrator explains. "A hole is an achievement. A great hole is a great achievement."

While attempting to build a pond in his backyard, the boy uncovers what appears to be a fossil. His persistent digging reveals it to be an extremely large fossil of a unique nature. Soon, thanks to the financial aspirations of the digger's father, the "Fossil Expert" for the state of Kansas gets involved and a series of controversies ensue involving who owns the fossil, what should be done with the fossil and whether or not it is really a fossil at all.

The unlikely tale is great fun to read because Jennings has given his narrator a perfect voice --- smart, wise-cracking and honest, the narrator tells his story engagingly, reporting the bizarre occurrences that pepper the story with a straightforwardness grounded in the idea that most anything can happen in a state as odd as Kansas. The narrator is both supported and opposed by a wacky cast of characters --- a mother who only makes sandwiches for meals, the pretentious "Fossil Expert," a bevy of eccentric members of the Quattlebaum family, and Phil, the solitary duck --- whose various outrageous actions are in perfect keeping with the tone of the story.

The narrator's most stalwart friends, Tom White Cloud, a bookstore owner of Native American descent, and Miss Joyce "Penny" Whistle, the narrator's science teacher on whom both Tom and the narrator have a crush, come to his aid late in the story when it appears everyone has lost sight of the real importance of what has appeared in the narrator's backyard. The "moral" of the story is laid on pretty thick by the book's end, but that hardly detracts from the overall pleasure THE GREAT WHALE OF KANSAS delivers.

--- (...)

I like the book so far,because in the story it tells
about a young boy in his backyard and,they are pucifect.

My best part is that when he is digging,and he discovers
preserved in the cretaceous lime stone is more than spectiacular.

The U.S.Mail the setting of the story is Highley Park,the
conflict is a fossil that is five-foot musasaur the characters are,Phile,Miss.Whistle,Chief Wah-Shum-Gah.

What a wonderful read! I am sorry to be finished reading. I will miss Red Ferrel, the horseman/ex-outlaw, and the Irishmen, Jack and Keven, and Adam Quint and Micheal Pacini. I just took a trip up to Quality Hill to look out over the West Bottoms, on this beautiful Kansas City day, and to finish my end-of-the-book cry. Schultz is a darned good writer.

"Gully Town" provides a very good insight into the history of Kansas City from the mid-1800's through the early 1900's through the lives of its main characters. A lot of these fictional characters are based on real people and Mr. Schultz's weaving of historic detail into the story is well done and makes for a learning expericence as well as fun reading. I would recommend "Gully Town" to anyone who has a desire to know more of the real history of early Kansas City, Missouri.

This is a very basic overview of how to start an ESL ministry. It is good for what I wanted it for but someone needing a lot of technical information on ESL learning would need more. The book provides an extensive bibliography and resource list. I've used the resource list more than anything. Good basic info.

I am really exicited to have found this book. I have a MA in missions science and TESOL and this book brings materials together in an excellent way! There are also other excellent resources in this book. I was excited to find the authors will relate to my training Native Americans to work with ESL! Highly recommended to others interested in ESL or training Christian workers in ESL!!

This is a solidly-written little book with good insight into the issues confronting a small congregation. The author has obviously been there, and worked through these issues with wisdom and good humor.

This book is a great resource for anyone belonging to a small church. The author discusses all the issues confronting a small church. His basic premise is that all small churches focus on church growth when they should be focusing on church health. A healthy organism will grow naturally. Unhealthy churches shouldn't expect to grow. Take care of church health first and your church will grow. He doesn't lay out a specific plan because each community is different. But he does lay out specific issues to be aware of and to deal with.

Over the last 10 or so years since the Publication of Hitler's Willing Executioners reignited the smoldering debate over the role of ideology in the prosecution of a genocidal war there have been many published books on the subject. These have accomplished their stated goals of either minimizing or arguing for the role of ideology with varying degrees of skill and hence success. Of the dozen or so that I've read thus far this one is head and shoulders above the rest. Edward B. Westermann's book is a classic in the field of Holocaust studies.

What Westermann looks at here is whether or not ideology was an important motivation for individuals in the Police Battalions to commit mass murder and how were the Uniformed police organizations structured by the Nazis to reinforce their brand of racial and political ideology. In other words he looks at the methods with which the Uniformed Police were handled by Hitler, Himmler and Daluege in order to attain THEIR ideological goals. His conclusions and research are both insightful and masterfully explained. What makes it easily read is his grasp of the human element here and his semi-chronological approach to telling the story with small subsections for the important details of issues covered. What's more, in the process of arguing for the role of ideology in the commission of genocide by the members of the organization he takes a 'from the ground up approach' do explaining it, not as Goldhagen did, assuming a racist outlook in the very blood of these men because they were german. Professor Westermann uses the entire first half of this book detailing the various efforts to creat political soldiers, as he refers to them and then in the second half goes on to describe the resulting actions taken in Poland, the Baltic states and the USSR by the men in these units.

The first chapter is devoted to the deep background of the Uniformed police and following through to the Nazi seizure of power and the party's early efforts to gain control of the police throughout Germany, starting with Prussia. Here he describes the traditions of violence within the police going back as far as the 1870's. He clearly shows an evolution of disdain and in fact hostility towards socialism and leftist politic's which were a threat to the status quo that they were to protect. This evolution became rapidly more evident during the chaos of the early Weimar years during which time the Uniformed Police and the paramilitary `Freikorps' worked together in many instances to violently put down leftist attempts to seize political power throughout Germany. The Nazi's were well aware of this general attitude, contends Westermann, and once they were in power they quickly moved to solidify the hold of right or nationalist high ranking officers by removing those who were less politically reliable.

In his second and third chapters he goes on to explain the efforts that Himmler and Daluege made to create both a militarized and ideologically trained force within the Uniformed Police(UP) that would be linked to Himmler's SS. Westerman gives example after example of military and ideological training that was the norm within Nazi Germany as well as less obvious methods of bringing about the desired change. As well as their infantry style training the men within the UP were clothed in military dress and given military style awards. Physical fitness standards were almost fanatically enforced and military pageantry was also observed. The author shows convincingly as well the effort put into putting ideological training into even the most innocent appearing recreation activities such as evening get togethers and trips to the cinema. This was in addition to actual training sessions and classes on race and global politics. He also, quite convincingly details the efforts made by Himmler to join the police with the SS both ideologically and in practical application as well.

In the second half of the book Professor Westermann focuses on the actual manifestations of the Nazi effort to reshape the police outside of German territory. He shows how the racial war in the east (Poland, the Baltic and the USSR) and the enforcement of occupation policies that followed were proof of Himmler's success in creating political soldiers who would willingly murder men, women and children in pursuit of pacifying the conquered territories. This is the key issue here. Westermann for once and for all does away with Stanley Milgram's model of unsure pawns simply accepting orders from an authority figure. He gives example after example of police volunteering for or taking initiative in mass murder of Jews, Gypsies and Slavs. He shows how in many cases although they may not have all tortured their victims, by and large they continued to volunteer to do their murderous duty and even suggest methods to make their tasks more efficient and take the initiative to include more victims than were intended in many instances. On the other hand he does not portray the majority of all German policemen as the bloodthirsty ideologues from birth that Daniel Goldhagen did with his landmark book. Rather, Professor Westermann carefully documents the myriad efforts of the Nazis over many years to create a political soldier and brother to the men of the SS and their, tragically, very successful results.

This is an absolute 'must-have' book for anyone who has an interest in the first phase of the 'Final Solution'. My one complaint, if it can be called that, is that his treatment of occupation policy was a bit brief considering the duration of time that the UP served as an occupying pacification force. Nonetheless this is an absolutely fantastic piece of work.

This is an excellent book. I would suggest reading "Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland" first. The role of the German Police in the Holocaust is still little known in America. Unlike the SS they were not declared a criminal organization by the allies at Nurnberg. Most of their work was done in Eastern Europe where since it was behind the "Iron Curtain" little became known of it.

This book is an excellent introduction to the creation of "Political Soldiers" and an excellent argument for not doing so in a democracy. This is one of those books that upon finishing it, you will find it will lead you down a lot of different reading roads in the search of more information.

Kansas (a series of 8 books, theme: Celebrate the States) is a nice little piece (140 pages) of nonfiction on the State of Kansas. Small and concise, it covers a lot of ground for its size. Sharp and well-written (author - Ruth Bjorklund) it presents many of the highlights that make Kansas such an interesting state. I was especially intrigued with the mention of Monument Rocks (near Oakley) and the post rock fences in central Kansas. All in all, it's a good read for those interested in history and the background of the state.

Kansas displays a writing technique, which is concise, but yet not so that it doesn't allow the author's comments to create a side line interest to over ride any thoughts of becoming bored by reading historical nonfiction.

It certainly does the job of describing Kansas from its beginning to the present day.

Kansas Bootleggers presents a criminological view of Kansas during prohibition. It is written in that, "good ol'e boy style," only a history buff could appreciate. The author writes about a time and subject which is not unfamiliar to him. I reccomend this book to anybody interested in criminal justice, Kansas, prohibition, or drinking grain alcohol.

Being a resident of Southeast Kansas, I really enjoyed this book. It told tales that were very interesting and fun to read. This book should be mandatory for all Southeast Kansans!!

I was curious to know what the secret was, yet afraid to find out. If horror ever needed a wake up call, this book has sucessfully done it. I recommend this book to anyone who's into horror and looking for a good read.This book breathes new life into the horror genre.

Great Book!! I was looking for a new kind of horror story.
The story was fresh and alluring. I couldn't put the book down.
Once you start reading this book, finishing it is a must! I couldn't get enough of this book. This book takes you to another world. A world, I woudn't mind paying to take a tour of. I hope Kansas Rae write a part two to this book. I know some director is ready to turn this book into a movie, and when they do; I will be the first person in line to buy a ticket. The book, Keep The secret Alive is a good read!

Ralph Voss's A Life of William Inge is a superb biography with impeccable balance between academic integrity and compassion for the subject. The work is that of a superior scholar who is a relentless detective. Dr. Voss has written a candid and painfully honest analysis of the complex and secretive Inge . Every last scrap of information has been unearthed in compiling the bibliography for this book. A less able author might have been tempted to exploit the anguish of Inge's tortured sexuality to construct a tawdry narrative concentrating on his personal life to the exclusion of an examination of his creative genius and contribution to American drama. Instead, Voss opted to explore all aspects of Inge's damaged psyche and in the process has simultaneously compiled an accurate and fascinating glimpse of post World War II middle class American morality.
The illusive, perplexing Inge was not an easy subject. A Life of William Inge belongs on the shelf of any person interested in the history of the stage, and is absolutely a must buy, gotta have book, for those attempting to write biographies. Not only is it the ultimate standard for combining flawless research skills with a compelling narrative, it's an exquisitely objective account of a lonely troubled man who went from winning the Pulitzer Prize to taking his own life.

Within reading the first few pages of this well researched and illuminating biography of one of America's finest playwrights, it becomes obvious that author Ralph Voss is first and formost a major fan of William Inge, the bard of Kansas. That is always a prerequisite for embarking on a biographical journey. However, Voss' fandom does get in his way frequently as he unsuccessfully confuses is goal: is he a fan or a critic. This is really a small matter as the book does provide a fascinating insight into William Inge, a man whose private nature makes him a shadowy enigma at best.

Even almost thirty years after his death, Voss (writing in 1988), finds it very difficult to focus on Inge's personal life. The book doesn't provide as effective an insight into the writing process or into the man's inter workings as say Leverich's recent biography of Tennessee Williams has. This is due in no small part to the simple but important fact most of Inge's surviving friends and family didn't really know him.

This leaves Voss with little choice but to focus on the work.

Voss makes it apparent that reading a biography of Inge is ultimately anti climatic as the thin layer of fiction in his work barely covers its ultimately autobiographical quality. Anyone who has read, watched or produced Inge's work will immediately recognize the forms, characters and language and situations relfected in his life. Voss proves most successful in drawing, enhancing and exploring those connections. This holds especially as the older,increasingly cynical and bitter Inge attempts to answer his critics (especially Robert Brustein!) and create plays reflective of the volatile 1960's and early 1970's. His latter plays failed perhaps because Inge tried to write outside of his strengths. Watching his bittersweet portraits of midwestern life crumble to dark and violent scenes of depravity really does fill the reader with a sense of sadness and loss. William Inge, like many great artists, decomposed in front of an audience.

Voss does admit that perhaps while Inge was not a great playwright in the sense he did not revolutionize the form as Brecht, Beckett, Odets, Williams, Miller and Wilder did, he did possess an uncanny ability to capture realistic dialouge.

Inge's sepia toned portraits of midwestern manners and life have been overshadowed by the canon of Williams, Miller and O'Neil to be sure. Voss makes the successful case that Inge stands as a proud equal to the more illuminary authors of America's rich dramatic tradition.

A fine read well worth the time and effort about a fine literary artist desperately in need of rediscovering. Even if it doesn't know whether it is a biography or critical evaluation.