Missouri Books

In this well-written and comprehensive volume on Catholic writing in the United States, Ross Labrie focuses on works that meet three criteria: high intellectual and artistic achievement, authorship by a practicing Roman Catholic, and a focus on Catholic themes. Labrie begins with a discussion of the Catholic imagination and sensibility and considers the relationship between art and Catholic theology and philosophy.
Central to Catholic belief is the doctrine of the Incarnation, wherein human experience and the natural world are perceived as both flawed and redeemed. This doctrine can be seen as the axis on which Catholic American literature in general rests and from which variances by particular authors can be measured. The optimism implied in this doctrine, together with an inherited American political consciousness, allowed a number of Catholic authors, from a culture otherwise perceived as outside the American mainstream, to identify with a political idealism that granted dignity to the individual.
Counterpointing this emphasis on the individual, though, is the doctrine of the church as an intermediary between God and humanity and the belief in the community of saints. In concert with the doctrine of the Incarnation, these teachings gave Catholic writing a communal and prophetic dimension aimed at the whole of American society.
Separate chapters are included for each of the writers considered so that the distinctiveness of their works is elucidated, as well as the unity and the rich diversity of Catholic American writing in general. Some of the authors considered are Flannery O'Connor, Walker Percy, Allen Tate, Robert Lowell, Thomas Merton, and Mary Gordon.
A concluding chapter examines the significance of the corpus of Catholic American writing in the years 1940 to 1980, considering it parallel in substance to the body of Jewish American literature of the same period. The Catholic Imagination in American Literature fills a distinctive place in the study of American literature.

The Catholic Tradition by Thomas Langan (University of Missouri Press)
"This is a remarkable work. There are few who possess Langan's historical knowledge and philosophical depth. His reading of the past is informative, insightful, and provocative, all at once. . . . Anyone who wishes to know what Catholicism is, friend, foe, or uninformed Catholic, will find this volume a veritable treasure."--Jude P. Dougherty
In his Tradition and Authenticity in the Search for Ecumenic Wisdom, Thomas Langan argued that the close interaction of traditions in today's society calls for methodical critical appropriation of the beliefs fostered by the principal traditions. He also promised to demonstrate by example how such appropriation could be accomplished. In The Catholic Tradition, Langan successfully fulfills that vow by showing how a tradition--the Catholic--has shaped his own outlook.
In this comprehensive study, Langan examines the history of the Catholic Church and the origins of its teachings since the Church's conception. Although committed to the Catholic religion, Langan does not obscure the Church's failings as he lays out the fundamentals of the Catholic faith.
He provides insight into the great Christological councils, discusses the differences in the spiritualities of East and West, and portrays the crucial roles that the pope and bishops played during the Middle Ages. He incorporates the thought of Augustine, Aquinas, and medieval Catholicism as he traces the rise and decline of Christian Europe, the great issues raised by the reform: priesthood, the Eucharist, spirituality, and Church structure.
Satan has no greater triumph, Langan asserts, than when Catholics, who are recipients of the Good News of God's universal love, allow selections from their tradition to be turned into sectarianism and ideology. This balanced history of the Church as human reality faces such perversions squarely. But despite betrayals by its own across the centuries, the Catholic tradition, with its origin at Sinai, remains the oldest and largest extant religious institution.
In a last section Langan offers a unique overview of the church's present situation, its strengths and weaknesses, the new movement and the challenge of the "new evangelization."

Chance Sharpe is still in the Dakota wilds, trying to reach the Missouri and then link up with his riverboat. But things don't go to plan and Chance soon finds himself two new trailmates, survivors of a tribal massacre. These two are a white woman and her son. They've been captives of Shadow Killer, a fierce Sioux warchief - and he wants them back. As the manhunt closes in on Chance, the gambler realizes the odds just maybe against him this time...

Clay Tanner presents the reader with a book that starts slowly and gently builds to it's violent and crushing - for Chance - ending.

The first part deals with the building relationship between Chance and the white woman who won't look at him, never mind speak to him. When Chance finds out just who she is he refuses to accept that Shadow Killer will come after them. Slowly he cannot ignore the facts and he has to take on about 30 warriors alone.

The fight with the Sioux covers most of the second half of the book and is quiet gruesome at times. The author really sets out to test his hero with seemingly impossible odds and how he takes them on proves to be exciting reading.

This series is one I'd recommend to anyone who likes their westerns tough.

I was very pleased with this order. The dust jacket was in better condition than I expected. Book is in excellent condition. Would buy from this seller again.

This is a terrific book for advanced recorder players. It has 180 pages of exercises and studies for both C and F recorders (including 16 bass recorder studies). It also includes duos for many different combinations of recorders. Spiral bound and easy to use. A real treasure!

Natural and/or man-made catastrophes and trauma occur every single day all over the world. Children and Disasters: A Practical Guide to Healing and Recovery, edited by: Wendy N. Zubenko and Joseph A Capozzoli, provides readers practical examples and ideas based on theoretical principles about what to do to help children, adolescents, and adults cope with traumatic events in a healthy manner and normalize their experiences. The book is a compilation of various professionals and disaster mental health (DMH) experts providing specific and useful material that can be utilized not only by all those involved with children such as parents, teachers, administrators, but moreover for psychologists, counselors, and relief workers aiding children immediately after a traumatic event. Many of the authors draw from personal experience in dealing with children and adolescents that have encountered various sorts of loss, grief, and/or bereavement and each chapter provides readers detailed developmentally-appropriate intervention techniques to help youngsters handle and survive the trauma

Willis Barnstone is well known and respected as a translator and editor of poets from many different languages and traditions; he is also a good literary analyst and compiler of texts around themes interesting and important to scholars and general readers alike. What is sometimes missed is that Barnstone is a poet in his own right, and this book serves to highlight that.

A 'breakthrough' book from the University of Missouri, this collection of Barnstone's poetry derives from experiences he had of travels to China not long after the travel difficulties were lifted. Among Barnstone's many works is a translation of the poetry of Mao Tse-tung; Barnstone's travels to China left him with his own remarkable experiences to write about, also.

These are poems unique and sublime, influenced by the many language traditions Barnstone has studied and worked with -- one gets the hint here and there of Spanish and ancient Indo-European influences as well as the Chinese in these pieces of reflection and insight. Barnstone develops his experiences of places (the Cave of the Peking Man, a mountain in Kinkiang, etc.), his relationships with people (at the cinema with Comrade Wu, with schoolchildren, etc.), and even the simple, everyday experiences (eating alone, being in the hotel room) -- nothing escapes Barnstone's poetic eye and pen.

The style Barnstone adopts for many of the poems here is clearly inspired by the linguistic characteristics of the Chinese language, which weaves pictographic elements into word characters, sometimes portrayed in block prints and sometimes in flowing, artistic strokes. One can say the same for Barnstone's poetry -- block-like work for poems such as 'Mao at the Long Wall, 1935' and 'Shoes with Comrade Chu', and more free-flowing senses in poems like 'Music in Canton' and 'Hotel Room'.

Barnstone includes pieces of poetry by other Chinese poets (largely ancient poets such as Wang Wei, Li Po, Chia Tao of the eighth and ninth centuries), but also more modern poets and prose writers to give flavour and sense of place.

There are few pages, but a wealth of words is contained herein.

As the sister book of Professor Ling's 2004 book, Chinese St Louis - From Enclave to Cultural Community, this one is the family album of Chinese-American residents with hundred of pictures in six chapters, each with a page orientation after the introduction. She did a good job in researching the first Chinese settler and Hop Alley in Downtown St Louis till 1966 when Busch Stadium replaced this landscape with the progressive development of laundry and restaurant to highly educated professionals integrated into the main stream society in a cultural community.

Dr. Ling personalizes the face and voice to the Chinese St Louis who may not be able to do so especially in the early years of bias and discrimination. This book is a respectful and grateful acknowledgment of this legacy of courage, struggle and success in a meaningful 150 years commemoration of the pioneer Alla Lee, the first Chinese in St Louis and subsequent Chinese American settlers. This is a welcome invitation to the city - Meet me in Chinese St Louis.

I remember how avidly (at age 15)I followed by radio the excitement which was the 1944 Democratic Convention. This little book does an excellent job of trying to tell what happened behind the scenes, and reads like a novel--where one must continually remind oneself that it IS going to come out all right, that Truman will be nominated, that he will go on to be an outstanding President, and that some things do work out for the best. An entralling and fascinating book, it brought back to me all the excitement which permeated Chicago and the people who were following what went on there in those momentous July days in 1944.

My Aunt was born and raised in Illasco Missouri where the book takes place. Her Father worked for the cement company in the book. I gave it to her for mothers day it brought tears to her eyes as well as many happy memories.