Texas Books

This is an outstanding work that should be on the shelf of everyone interested in the history of flight. Here are my reasons for recommending the work.

First, there has not been any genuine attempt to write a comprehensive overview of the history of air power since Robin Higham published his book, "Air Power: A Concise History" in 1972. This work, of course, is an expansion and updating of that earlier book. I believe it fulfills a real need in the historical literature because of its broad perspective, sweeping conclusions, and multinational character. Higham is at his best in synthesizing the interrelationships of air power from nation to nation and conflict to conflict. He is equally at home with American, European, and Asian aspects of the story.

Second, I believe that the author has effectively explored the evolution of the doctrine of air power and incorporated the seven major ingredients of air power into his discussion:

1. Strategic bombardment of enemy production facilities and marshalling yards (with both land- and sea-based aircraft and missiles). Strategic bombing took on enormous importance because it was the most spectacular mission an air component could accomplish without assistance from ground forces.

2. Aerial interdiction, a close relative to strategic bombardment, but not exactly the same, for its purpose is to stop the flow of enemy assets to the battlefield.

3. Air superiority, control of the airspace over the battlefield and the classic dogfighting of fighters.

4. Air interception, fighter defense of friendly territory.

5. Ground attack and close air support, aircraft used in direct support of ground forces for victory in a battle. This is the classic case of infantry calling in air strikes seen in many Hollywood war films. In reality, it is a very important and difficult skill to master, especially in hitting a target while missing the friendly troops nearby. Another component came into this after World War II with the rise of helicopters that have a special place in accomplishing this mission but are owned, at least in the U.S., by the Army rather than the Air Force.

6. Airlift, an especially important aspect of air power usually ignored or taken for granted. It was the measure of victory in certain aspects of World War II (e.g. keeping China in the war through the Hump airlift and in airborne operations), in the Berlin Airlift, in the siege of Khe Sanh, in the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, and perhaps in the deployment for the Gulf War.

7. Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence (CI) has been critical to the successful use of air power. These include such things as reconnaissance, AWACs, DEW Line, navigation, radar, fire control, and the Global Positioning System.

Third, the author every effectively explores two themes--continuity and change--to give unity to the book and make the past useful for understanding recent events. Providing a suggestive description of air power in recent conflicts, Higham demonstrates how tactics and strategy sometimes paralleled those employed by air commanders of much earlier eras.

Fourth, the author's most interesting chapter is his last one, in which he offers some lessons for those involved in air power strategy and doctrine today. That suggestive chapter will find use in a variety of settings.

This is a must read book, and I would go further to add that it should be re-read, annotated, and referred to repeatedly.

100 Years Of Air Power & Aviation By Robin Higham (a former R.A.F. pilot and Professor Emeritus at Kansas State University) deftly weaves together theory and historical examples of the evolution of aviation during the past century, ranging from the Wright brothers and World War I, to modern day commercial airlines and aviation innovations. An extensive and "reader friendly" text is enhanced with a sprinkling of black-and-white photographs which combine to informatively trace the an on-going, world-altering saga of human invention and ingenuity as reflected through the courage of pilots and dedication of aviation pioneers. 100 Years Of Air Power & Aviation is clearly recommended as a core addition to any academic or community library Aviation History collection.

I used this book last year when I visited Dallas/Fort Worth and I plan on using it again this year. Since I only make one week trips to see my family, I'm sure that I'll be using this book for several years to come! (Or until the next edition comes out!)

Have used book to find unique attractions in the DFW area. Has help find places we never would have uncovered without the aid of the book. Great resource!

I have cycled only a few of the book's listed road rides in the Hill Country but I am familiar with portions of several other roads in the Hill Country and West Texas via automobile. These are truly great rides with well-thought directions and information. It's so good that when Mr. Ford says you will have to "shoo" sheep and livestock from the road, it really must be done! I eagerly await even more rides with the next edition of the book.

Our Texas Hill Country is indeed a little-known source of beauty to outsiders. Because of its depressed condition for decades in the past it was overlook even by Texans. Today, however, we are able to see this area for what it is: rolling hills, tumbling streams and rivers, and a great view around so many curves in its small secondary roads. Though West Texas is well-known for Big Bend, the sheer area of this part of our State, combined with sparse population, means all of us can enjoy peace and solitude--this is where the South turns into the Southwest.

Mr. Ford's book reflects a love of the area, combined with excellent directions and documentation of sights. The book is divided into geographic areas, and within those areas, into tours of a day or longer. He has also done an excellent job of rating the difficulty of the tours, and why he has come to those conclusions.

Though I have only cycled a small amount of this area, I would also recommend this book for those who would like to tour by car. I've traveled almost this entire area by car and wish I'd had this guide then. Additionally, I found the photography very well-done--particularly in view of the price of the book.

This book is a valuable resource, and a terrific buy for the price!

Finally a book by an attorney who really knows the perils that accident victims face! A traffic accident can be so devastating to the victim and their families. They face critical decisions as to the medical care. Then they are forced to face the reality of insurance company greed. Knowing your rights is the first step to protecting those rights! Robert Kraft has created an essential tool for every driver in Texas. I am so glad I was lucky enough to order his book!

As a former insurance adjuster, I have read Mr. Kraft's book with interest. He provides insight and information that everyone in Texas should have. Buy this book before you are in an accident so you do not make one of these 7 mistakes. Give them to your friends and make sure they do not let the insurance companies take advantage of them. I strongly recommend this book to everyone in Texas!

I bought and read this book many years ago when the local bookstore, Black Images, still had copies available. I had only lived in Dallas 10 years or so at that time but as a social worker in the city had come to know it well over the years. This book was amazing! By everything I knew it was very accurate and true and frightening that this could happen. I was thankful that such truths could be documented and put into print in our wonderful nation.

Then I loaned my copy of the book to a friend, forgot who it was over the years, and could not find a copy when I searched for it years later. I finally found a copy of it online complete with Jim's signature and message giving it to a leading editorial writer of a major newspaper in Dallas.

It is a powerful book but sadly I think many in Dallas want what it says to be hidden. As I recall I could not even find it in the Dallas Library, but that appears to have been due to my faulty searching, or else people have given enough copies of it to the Library that there are now many copies of it available throughout the Dallas Library System.

Mr. Schutze is a very talented columnist for the Dallas Observer. He writes this insightful look at the beguiling nature of Dallas Racial politics, adn how a group of oligarchs made a deal for desegregation, but left years of seething rage in place.

This is one of those theses that comes along every few generations and redefines how man looks at himself. I read this thesis dozens of times and every time I discovered something new about myself and the fate of man.

The pictures are phenomenal, too.

If you think you knew everything about muscle modeling, think again. The author deals with the subject in a unique way that forces a paradigm shift in the way that we think about, feel about, and look at muscles. In many ways this is the completion of Leonardo Da Vinci's long forgotten dream, to accurately model not just the bones of man, not just the blood vessels, but the very muscular structure on which all motion and strength depends.

The illustrations are tops, by the way.

Like so many of Appelfeld's novels this book is filled with characters who find their own Jewish identity problematic. His characters do not as far as I know ever have a positive Jewish religious identity. And the religious Jews from Eastern Europe are looked on often with repulsion. This is the case with one of the central characters of the work, the father of the narrator. The father is a well- known Austrian writer whose great success is undermined by those who claim he is a decadent Jew, not a real Austrian. The father is extremely conflicted about his own Jewishness and makes continual criticisms of the Jews he meets. He is a strange character whose hero is Kafka and whose career is at the end broken by anti- Semitic rejections of Austrian publishers.
The narrator of the story the adolescent Bruno tells of his own adventures in this assimilating world. He describes the way it falls apart in the first half of the work. In the second half of the work Bruno returns after the Shoah to the town of his youth. He meets many different characters including half- Jews with a positive if somewhat fantastic relation to their own Jewishness. He also meets one reprehensible convert who has stayed alive by repudiating the Jewish people. He again meets Austrian or half- Jewish women who regret that they have spent their lives with Austrians, and not made lives with kinder, more considerate)(according to them)Jewish husbands.
As is often the case in the novels of Appelfeld there is no decisive conclusive end. The hero by returning has no major revelation or insight or overall philosophical position to develop in relation to what has happened.
The strange silence of the main character, the failure of him really to meditate in depth on those lost gives a puzzling, detached character to this work.
The reader senses Appelfeld is giving us insight into the worlds of these assimilated and assimilating Jews But before the unspeakable he is silent , disturbed and disturbing.

Mr. Appelfeld writes of life before and after the Holocaust had swept through Austria. "The Age Of Wonders", is the second of his works that appeared in this country following his first, "Badenheim 1939". This work like many that have followed appear to contain elements of Mr. Appelfeld's own remarkable story of survival, when he managed to survive as an 8 year old child his deportation to the labor camp in Transnistria.

The conflict is again explored amongst Jews prior to the war as to those Jews who were, "petit bourgeoisie", non-practicing, "intellectuals", and even a close friend that takes the dramatic step of circumcision as a man well into the middle of his years. The Father of the boy who's story we read is a writer of some renown that believes his Austrian Birth, education, and books published in German separate him from the other Jews he has so much contempt for. His friend that embarks on the mentioned operation is at once both ridiculed by the Father, and then is the object of a frantic effort to prevent him from allowing this act of, "disfigurement", to his person.

The primary Family all have their own issues with their religion, or what it, "should be". The Family deals not only with friends that choose their own way, but even the boys Aunt who he lives with as a child, eventually dies within the walls of a Catholic Monastery.

As he has in his other books the actual Holocaust itself is not written of. There is a single event when they are locked in a Synagogue, are packed onto a train, and then it is 30 years later and the protagonist is now a middle-aged man. Like the Author he has immigrated to Israel but comes home for reasons of his own. This final part of the work is fascinating as the Author brings the man home and it feels as though what he sees and does is real, and also that it may not be happening at all. The last comment is too extreme, for it does happen, it is just that the Author seems to give a transparency, to place a haze between his character and those he encounters, either from his life as a boy, or strangers who have inherited old ideas.

I have read many of Mr. Appelfeld's works and have found them to be some of the best literature on both the pre and post Holocaust experience. His survival was remarkable, it is little less than astonishing that he can not only write of this terrible era in History, but he can share it with all who are interested.

A friend loaned me this book after recommending it to me. I couldn't put it down once I started reading it. I purchased two copies, for my son and for a friend's son. As an author and publisher myself, I just wish I could have published this wonderful book.

The information is so well organized and presented in a clear, concise manner. There is not a high school graduate who is considering attending Texas A&M that would not benefit from the advice this author has pulled together from his own personal experience and that of others. It is an easy read and does not repeat information. Every page presents the facts and steps necessary to achieve success that first year.

I highly recommend this book to any student at TAMU who wants to improve his or her grades. And as a parent I can attest to how helpful it is for new entering freshmen. This book really helps to set expectations as to how incredibly challenging and competitive it is at TAMU. And it certainly will give parents some peace of mind that their child has the tools to get off to a good start instead of falling behind. I hope this book is a blessing for you!

It's a treat to see the Rio Grande Valley through Jan Seale's eyes. Her descriptions fits my memories of the Valley, in some cases, to a "T" and in other stories it gives me a fresh perspective.
Here's what Texas Books in Review (Gabriel Stauf) says of it "These individualistic voices do much to give each story its own flavor, develop setting and mood, and make the characters as familiar as the reader's next door neighbor."

Over the years, I have avoided reading short stories--other people's short stories, that is. I felt like they were unfulfilling and ended too soon. But recently I was laid up for a while and was searching for something to help me stop thinking about myself. I noticed Jan Seale's book, which I had purchased at a writers' conference a number of years ago, and thought I'd give it a look.

What a marvelous surprise! I was hooked after the first story about a gentleman who--while taking chemo treatments--was building a purple martin birdhouse as a way of looking forward to a future and to make his mistake-of-a-second-wife crazy.

Although the stories in this book are only a few pages long, each one stands alone as a unique slice of life. All are done from the perspective of different characters--old, young, men, women, different ethnicities and races. And you feel you are that person.

My favorite was To Reap, To Thresh, about a farmer who was planning his tombstone with a picture of a combine chiseled on it. What a great idea--to have a monument that shows what you did in this life. It makes you think, What would I put on mine?

I highly recommend this book. You can read one story at a time and have lots to reflect on or consume the whole book like I did. Then you can go back and read them over again.

by Doris Anne Roop-Benner
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women

This book is an absolute masterpiece. I rank it with the greatest short fiction of Dostoyevsky, Hamsun, Unamuno. It is the last novel of the writer whom the next century will regard as a monument of the twentieth--after all, he lived 102 years and was active all the while producing fictional and philosophical creations of unusual originality. He also kept a diary through the decades, and when he died at the beginning of 1998 one obituary called him "the chronicler of a century of horrors."

ALADDIN'S PROBLEM is a slim volume, exceptionally terse, cryptic and understated even by Jnger's standards. It begins with brief meditations on growing old and flowers almost imperceptibly into the story of a funeral assistant who, troubled by the emptiness of modern life and the power of the forces above us ("Aladdin's problem"), conceives one of the most fantastic ideas for permanence in human history. You will stop in amazement when you discover it. From this point on he moves into a mystical realm with the aid of a suddenly appearing guru.

Perhaps I've already told too much, but this book is written so precisely that you will savor every word and thrill at the author's world-conception as it builds. Jünger's art is so much his own that you quickly understand that you are dealing with a truly independent mind.

Marsilio Publishers is performing a great service for American culture by publishing English translations of Jnger's works. It is a project on the level of publishing Jorge Borges in English in the 1960's. Let us hope that they will do an edition of Jnger's astonishing anti-utopian novel,THE GLASS BEES, which has been long out of print in translation.

Ernst's Junger's "Aladdin's Problem" is a short, but brilliant, expose of the spiritual disease eating the West alive and a concise statement of the author's alleged solution.

The cultural critique takes hold beneath the guise of a short retrospective memoir written in the 1980's by an East German army officer who has defected to the West and who eventually makes a quiet career in the mortuary services industry. He does well at this, until one day inspiration strikes - he decides to revive the ancient practice of interring the dead in "cities" of their own. He searches for a site for his universal necropolis, and settles on Cappadocia (in Turkey). The project, called "Terrestria", becomes wildly successful. However, as it drags on, the narrator becomes increasingly ill, until events reach a climax with the mysterious appearence of a sage who will impart wisdom to him.

The meaning? Aladdin was a poor boy who gained great power. Or more accurately, he was a poor boy who gained a lamp with a demon in it that had great power and was bound to do his will. The underlying comparison between the Middle Eastern legend and the modern West is clear. The "Problem" alluded to in the title is that of technological nihilism. We Westerners, and by extention many other peoples around the globe, are in possession of technologies that put terrible forces at our command; Aladdin's problem - "What do I do with the demon whose might I barely control?" - is our problem. Whether Junger's solution was acceptable is more than I can right now say. But this book is as artful a diagnosis of the Western world's illness as you will find anywhere else.