Nebraska Books

Early writes of three representative and important figures in the Black movement of the 60's. Mohammed Ali, Sammy Davis,Jr., and Cecil Moore. Each man represented a different way of responding to the racism around him. Easy and straight-forward, Early's discussion of the

Johann David Heinichen was (along with Johann Mattheson, Johann Gottfried Walther, Kirnberger, and J. J. Fux) one the important music theorists of the late Baroque era. His treatise primarily deals with figured-bass theory, but also reflects a summary of music theory mixed with new ideas of the Dresden school. Professor Buelow's book wisely selects important portions in translation and summarizes some of the parts of lesser interest and importance. Anyone doing research in Baroque music theory should own this because it is a treasure trove of material for theorists. It is a scholarly volume that will not appeal to a general audience.

A lively, descriptive and exciting narrative of Thomas James' adventures up the Missouri River in 1809-1810 and to Sante Fe in the years 1821-1823. His writing abilities are brilliant and the reader will find themself anxiously flipping through the pages to see what happens next. In 1809 James joined the St.Louis Missouri Fur Company and relates the experiences of his crew being mistreated by Manuel Lisa, then joining up with John Colter, along with several other personal accounts of the day to day activities and survival strategies they encountered. He was one of the first to describe and take part in the trade business from St. Louis to Sante Fe and it is absorbing to read of his confrontations with the Comanches and the Spanish during these years. This is a must read for early American West enthusiasts.The book itself may be difficult to find, but it is certainly well worth the effort.

This is one of the few books to be found on the Tiwanaku people of Lake Titicaca. These are a people who pre-dated the Inca and for close to 800 years dominated the highlands in what is now Peru and Bolivia.

Today their most visible remains is the gate of the sun and semi sunken temple on the shore of Lake Titicaca. They left no written records and in the immediate area of Tiwanaku city itself their remains have been poorly excavated over the years. Aside from their ruins perhaps their most stunning legacy has been their textiles.

This book displays a number of gorgeous textiles that were produced by the Tiwanaku and Wari peoples - these textiles, most of them today in private collections, on display here for the first time in one place, are one of the main reasons to get this book.

The text surrounding the textiles, snuff trays and sculptures produced in Tiwanaku and Wari illustrated in this book is scholarly. It draws on what little we have been able to find out about these people to show us a culture that was both savage, tightly integrated with nature and a people with high artistic sensibilities. If you want to know more about pre-Columbian cultures that extend beyond the Inca this book is one you should get for your collection about a little discussed people. If you enjoy pre-Columbian textiles this book should not be missed, if only for its colour illustrations.

As you read of the adventures of Tornado Jones and his family you are transported back to a simpler time. The book can be summed up as the adventures of Tornado Jones and his family as they fight progress and the build of a damn that will flood their old family home palce. It is a wonderful book I was first introduced to back in 1963 when my fifth grade teacher ended every school day reading out loud to us from this wonderful book.

This 4-vol. set includes 2 volumes of narratives in Arikara with interlinear translation and two volumes of freer translation of the texts. A set of two audio cassettes is also available from University of Nebraska Press (and presumably from Amazon.com if you ask about it). _Traditional Narratives_ is really almost beyond criticism or praise. What Parks has done here is not just to present scholars and American Indians with a gold mine of Plains Indian traditional culture. He has given us and the Arikaras by far the most substantial, most accurate, and easily accessible collection of material in the Arikara language by some of its last fully fluent custodians (all of the informants for _Traditional Narratives_ are now deceased). For linguists, this is the largest corpus we will ever have of a beautiful and amazingly intricate language, now, like many other American Indian languages, edging toward extinction.

I admit to a terrible weakness for good, highly detailed line drawings; I know real people and animals don't have ink outlines, but there's nothing like a great ink sketch to help you understand just how a creature, or an outfit, is put together. Jo Mora, who deserves to be far better known than he is, was a master of the medium, and nowhere does he strut his stuff better in this book, first printed in 1946, when he was 67 years old.

Mora begins with a brief, humorous sketch of the beginning of the American cattle industry--the early Spanish ranchero, the antebellum Texian frontiersman-cowhunter, and at last the first great trail drives to Kansas. He goes on to explain why the cowboy's dress and tools are as they are and how the rider does his work, complete with diagrams that show sequentially how a steer is "busted." He tells about the two chief systems of breaking a cowhorse, about the longhorn and his customs, the trail herd on the way north, the chuck wagon, the roundup, brands, rustling, and that indispensable item, the horse. He illustrates it all with fine detailed pictures that should help anyone, even if they've never seen a real cowboy in their lives, imagine how one should have looked. His friendly, casual voice, like that of Will James or Ramon Adams, is that of an old-timer at the campfire genially explicating upon something he loves and knows well, without ever forgetting that he may be dealing with a pack of ignorant greenhorns. This is one of the half-score or so of books that are absolutely indispensable to an understanding of the genuine "waddie" and his work. It begs to be brought back into print.

Making his way across Nebraska, Skye Fargo comes upon a burning cabin, and an entire family shot execution-style. He soon learns that there's a killer on the loose: smallpox. And then there's the night riders, and they're out to make sure anyone with the disease - and those near them - don't live long enough to spread the illness. Now the Trailsman is going to give the cowardly killers a dose of their own medicine.

Jon Sharpe has turned out another terrific entry in the Trailsman series. A story filled with strong and entertaining characters of both sexes.

There are many memorable moments in this book but the strongest for me has to be the scenes in the prison stockade, particularly the beating of Skye Fargo and his hanging from the fence. These scenes so well written they created vivid images in my mind.

Then there's the mystery elements as to what is really going on and just who is behind it all. When revealed the answer came as a complete surprise. This and the savage action all interspersed with moments of humour.

This book was so well written I found it impossible to put down so found myself reading it in one sitting.

If you're a fan of the Trailsman series then this is an entry not to be missed, if you just like a great western to read then this book should be on your too read list.

Highly recommended.

For anyone interested in surrealism this book is a must. Aragon is harsh and yet decisive in his uncompromising judgment of what is obsolete and what is not with respect to the surrealist revolution, and his denunciation of 'automatic writing' as poetry is right on the mark. He is so obnoxious and unsparing in his criticism of everyone and everything that the reader immediately realizes he was mistaken in joining the Communist Party and leaving the surrealist movement:he was made for a group that espoused absolute rebellion against everyone and everything conventional, and it was where he belonged. He distinguishes real poets from those he so gently refers to as, "any dog on the street who, like an inexhaustible diarrhea, ceaselessly copies down his insignificant scribblings and dares to compare it with true poetry". Eheheehehe! A must

Here's a gem of a book. McKanna skillfully examines a nineteenth century murder case that resulted in the conviction of a poorly defended Native American in San Diego County. From a messy crime scene that would make a modern "CSI" team cringe to an almost comical court case, McKanna shows that the conviction of "Indian Joe" was perhaps inevitable given the racist nature of the local citizenry and judicial system. In 1893, José Gabriel would become the first man executed at San Quentin. Expertly researched by using court records and newspaper accounts, this book is also a highly readable and sobering comment on American justice.