Oklahoma Books

I first purchased this book at Canyon de Chelly, in the heartland of Navajo country. I had read all Tony Hillerman had written, and I had witnessed a pow-wow on the Navajo reservation. This book is so readable, enjoyable, and comfortable that I have given it to many friends who are interested in the Southwest. It was a fantastic read for a very, very bright sixth-grader, and a fantastic read for several very birght 40-something readers. An excellent way to refresh and enhance your history of the Navajos.

This is a valuable book (resource) for budding entrepreneurs. It seems to try to cover all the bases for starting a small business, but it can't do them all well in the space available between its covers. The book is only 288 pages long. If you are in the planning stages of starting a small business, then I highly recommend you get a copy of this book. Read it, study it, and outline it. There are helpful checklists to help you grasp the subjects. You will come up with a plethora of keywords and terms that you will want to google to find Web pages giving more detailed (and maybe more current) information.

I am a SCORE counselor (Senior Corps of Retired Executives) who typically does face-to-face counseling sessions three nights a month. It would really be neat if my clients would read this book BEFORE they came to their session with me because they would pretty much be "educated customers" ready to ask educated questions. Our sessions would be so much more beneficial.

My favorite chapters were:

1. Initial business concerns
2. Your business' structure
3. Business start-up details
5. Sources of business assistance (SCORE is mentioned here)
7. Your smart business plan (and a good sample plan is included)
8. Obtaining the financing you need

The book is weak when it comes to how the Internet can be used in corresponding, hiring, and marketing. But this is just one example of how googling keywords and concepts found in the book will make the book more complete. Don't treat the book as authoritative on the law. It isn't. Nor was it ever intended to be. It is light on tax information as it relates to small business.

I was particularly impressed with the material presented in Chapter 2: Choice of Legal Entity. That subject is sorely ignored in most small business books, and it is critically important. It is a subject I regularly must spend a great deal of time discussing at my SCORE sessions. This book does a pretty good job on the topic.

Chapters 4 and 9 through 12 are easy to find fault with. The topic of each could fill a book. But having these topics covered definitely will help a budding entrepreneur know some of the issues they raise.

I would have liked the book more if Chapter 6 (marketing) had been less superficial. When I read it I got the impression that the author was more a public relations expert than a marketing expert. I generally categorize public relations as a subset of marketing. Marketing includes advertising, public relations, and a whole host of other promotion techniques. I did not get this message when I read the book. I also would have liked the book better if the Internet, email, and Web sites had been discussed more. But there are many books on those subjects. Therefore, I can't complain too much about the limited discussion of computers.

When you read this book it may feel a little like it was produced on an assembly line. Maybe it was? There are 51 versions of this book sold; one for each state and the District of Columbia. Content is king, and this book has it. 5 stars!

I do not know the poetry of Wislawa Szymborska. But I was deeply impressed by his Nobel Speech. Of all those I have read it seeemed to me the most genuinely modest. It is also generous and considerate. It speaks about the poet's somewhat awkward place in society. It tells of how the 'poet's life' is ordinarily the least capable of arousing general interest, at least in the form of film biography. It also speaks beautifully about the poet as 'inspired. But it does not limit the ranks of the inspired to the artistic alone, but rather includes all those who are called to do some kind of work.
It contains a very persuasive statement about the uniqueness of each person.And how it is the poet's task time and again to write of the uniqueness.
It shows a humble and my mind realistic sense our limitations in knowing the world.
Here is Szymborska's, to my mind very persuasive conclusion.

"Poets, if they're genuine, must also keep repeating "I don't know." Each poem marks an effort to answer this statement, but as soon as the final period hits the page, the poet begins to hesitate, starts to realize that this particular answer was pure makeshift that's absolutely inadequate to boot. So the poets keep on trying, and sooner or later the consecutive results of their self-dissatisfaction are clipped together with a giant paperclip by literary historians and called their "oeuvre."

Only if you were on another planet could you have not been aware of the heinous and hideous act of terrorism and cowardice that struck the people of Oklahoma City (and the nation) in April, 1995. In this very real (but fictional account) of the quest for the all-loving and all-powerful God, Kara and Rachael (two friends in OKC), and Kara's uncle in Charleston, SC (a retired Episcopal priest) explore the issues of theodicy, the sovereignty of God, and why evil is in this world. In a historically accurate, and theologically astute manner, Doctor Truesdale (professor of philosophy and ethics at Nazarene Theological Seminary in Kansas City, MO) explores these questions that have plagued honest-hearted believers for centuries. "IF God is God, then why?" is such a profound masterpiece of heart-searching spirituality, that I had to read it three times. I will recommend it to anyone. I will certainly recommend it to my seminary professors. And I will re-read it, everytime I want to ask "If God is God, then why?" Truesdale has done a tremendous service to the Body of Christ in this deeply reflective book. Buy one for yourself, buy one for a friend, and search the scriptures, just as the author has encouraged the three main players to do in this magnanimous work. Thank you, Doctor Al Truesdale for pastoring so many of us in this great book!

In essence, as Brown states in his preface, the Imperial War Museum is the author of this thought provoking compilation of moving textual and stunning visual records of the First World War, 1914-1918. The Museum was established in the wake of the greatest conflagration the world had ever known and has an almost inexhaustable reserve of pictures, posters, postcards, photographs, films, pamphlets, books, diaries, letters, and documents detailing the massive British effort to fight and win 'the war to end all wars.' The author does not attempt to present a comprehensive study but rather one that naturally leans towards areas in which the Museum's holdings are rich. Thus, the British role on the Western Front is emphasized although other wartime operations such as Gallipoli, Salonika, and the Middle East are not ignored. While the war was highly political and technological, the focus of this book is on the personal and the particular. The subject matter is not war so much as people caught up in war and the author clearly intends to provide a fresh look at the First World War which is as precise and objective as possible yet spiritually enriching and in context to current events. Strong editorialship is utilized to weave together personal profiles and special features with linking narrative prose which is clearly written and assimilated. In these pages great political and military figures such as David Lloyd George, Winston Churchill, and Douglas Haig appear remote and somewhat dehumanized rather than the masses of individual participants as is usually the case. For example, the reader is shocked but ultimately relieved at the situation of W.H. Wykeham-Musgrave, Royal Navy, who was torpedoed three times on the same day as the armored cruisers HMS ABOUKIR, HOGUE, and CRESSY were sunk by a single German U-boat on 22 September 1914. There is also ample evidence of the largely unheralded efforts of women in the munitions factories and in military support services such as nursing and transportation. Contemporary humor remains relevant especially in regard to the contrasting abysmal conditions in the trenches and the more comfortable home fires. In one military paper a woman asks a soldier "What struck you most about the Ypres battle?" to which he replies "Shrapnel, lady." (p. 265). Finally, the book concludes with the disillusioned observations of one soldier who argues that "the old order had changed; the genteel of 1914 were gone; blatent riches reigned in their stead; money was the power in the land; money that had been reaped from the bodies of the dead. This was victory. The war to end war" (p. 282). Such a loss of idealism in the aftermath of this cataclysmic horror became the zeitgeist for an entire 'lost generation' and is well represented in this book and masterfully communicated to the reader.

Most of this info was not allowed in court. Read it and decide for yourself.

Huston Diehl's Index of Icons in English Emblem Books is an essential reference for the scholar of Renaissance emblematics. Emblems, those mixes of allegorical picture with latin sententiae or poem, were ubiquitous through renaissance literature, visual arts, and theatre. Early modern English intellectuals, from Protestant sermonists to Shakespeare, utilized these moralistic "speaking pictures" as references in their work.

And Diehl has provided an easily usable and complete index of emblematic icons in his work. Although earlier compilations of English emblems, including those by Peter Daly, were useful Diehl's work saves the scholar innummerable hours trying to find obscure iconic references.

This book by J.W. Vaughn who has authored other books covering Plains Indian, U.S.Army conflicts, brings details discovered by his own archeological work to throw fresh light on seven Indian versus Army battles. The best known of these are the Fetterman fight, the Hayfield fight, the Rosebud Campaign and Major Reno's action in the valley at the Battle of the Little Big Horn.
Mr. Vaughn is a serious historian who brings an analytical mind to interpreting the signifance of the battle related artefacts he unearthed at the various battle sites. His findings open up fresh ideas on how these seven engagements developed and whilst his conclusions may not receive universal approval, his views will command respect and cause all those interested in the history of the Plains Indian wars to reconsider their own beliefs on exactly what occurred during these seven actions.

An exciting, spirited and uplifting look into our Native Americans' beliefs, values and morals. This area of study is brimming with imagery, fascination and curiosity for all ages.
We read of myths and legends from the Nez Perce, Crow, Sioux, Arapaho, Blackfeet and Shoshone tribes to mention a few. Herein lies tales of:
Creation of the world; origins of many landforms and stars; spirits and monsters in rivers and lakes; "cannibal dwarfs"; "the little people"; prophecies; animals and plants; the list goes on.
A well researched book which shines with enlightenment.

Indian Life on the Upper Missouri consists of fifteen articles written by John Ewers brings to life the culture of the Native American culture in the Upper Missouri region. He covers everything from remembrances of the days before horses were introduced into the region to the artistic depiction of this culture in the twentieth century. His prose is clear and non-academic, although his subject matter is treated in a very organized and concise manner, similar to academic writing. This book would be useful both for the academic and the casual reader. The use of graphics ties well to the writing and is used to enlighten rather than just to illustrate.

I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in a study of the Indians on the northern reaches of the Great Plains.