Texas Books

Caleb's adventures take him through the Civil War, buffalo hunts, Indian Wars, and barroom shoot outs. During these times he meets a Comanche slave woman who kidnaps him, and a renegade Arapaho who likes scalping people, and finally meets Marisol a Mexican beauty who gives him his children and wins his love. Some times the story slows down quite a bit and other times you won't want to put it down.

I'm going to add my five stars to the list, because Mike Blakely deserves it. This book delves into the life of young Caleb Holcomb, and we get to watch him grow up. It, like Kirby Jonas books I'm always touting, is not your standard western, but it is a good homespun tale all the same. Caleb is heroic without being super human, and you will fall in love with his affable, musical character who is always finding almost too much trouble for him to handle. Read Mike Blakely and anything by Kirby Jonas, and you won't need to turn anywhere else. If these two authors ever got together they would have a lot in common and a lot to talk about. You can bet they would be friends!

This book is EXCELLENT !!! Anyone who has any intrest in the old west should read this book !!!! It is absolutely amazing !!!!! The writer has such style and grace !!! He is an amazing writer and I think he is great!

It is hard to imagine a more comprehensive, satisfying read in the western genre. Blakely's characters are real people. We care about them, and feel as if we know them. I always look forward to Mike Blakely's efforts. Even if your not a regular reader of westerns, give this book a chance. But be prepared to be spoiled. "Formula" westerns will pale by comparison.

Note: I have begun reading the sequel, "Too Long at the Dance" and find it well-crafted as well.

The youngest son of two american pioneers, Caleb Holcomb tries desperately to show his manhood. The plot is well developed as Caleb picks and chooses the adventures in his life. Blakely uses accurate historical insight as well as first hand knowledge of the cowboy way to show his readers what growing up in the 1800's was like. A true american storyteller Blakely has turned out another timeless classic with "Shortgrass Song"

Alma Schindler was a piece of work who went on to inspire a number of others, notably the first movement of husband Gustav Mahler's sixth symphony and lover Oskar Koskoschka's most famous painting, Bride of the Wind. After Mahler's death and her fling with Kokoschka, Alma married architect Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus. After their divorce, she married novelist and playwright Franz Werfel - an unjustly neglected figure best known today for the novel The Song of Bernadette and the play Jacobowsky and the Colonel - who called Alma "one of the very few magical women who exist."

She continues to inspire, as demonstrated by "Counterpoint," a 10-poem sequence that forms the second part of Skin, April Lindner's debut volume of verse. "Counterpoint" is subtitled "Poems on the Life of Alma Mahler Werfel" and follows Alma from her childhood visits to her father's studio (Emile Schindler was a well-known landscape painter), when she would "practice keeping still... to watch his hand propel the brush," up to 1964 in New York City, when she finds that death "is handsome /... and he, too, needs me /... his whispered proposal... clumsy / but ardent..." The sequence ends with a line so good it would be as wrong to quote it as to tell whodunit in a murder mystery.

Skin is the 11th winner of the Walt McDonald First-Book Poetry Prize, awarded by Texas Tech University Press and named in honor of a former TTUP poetry editor. Lindner, who teaches English at St. Joseph's University, seems well-deserving. She has a sharp eye for detail: "daylight, rationed by Venetian slats," "the white moth of a kiss / blown from a boy's plump lips," "burnt / sienna moustache," "milky way of red freckles" - these are picked at random from just two pages. She also has a well-nigh flawless ear for lyrical phrases graced by the uneven rhythm extolled by the French symbolist Paul Verlaine.

Occasionally, especially in the opening section, she gets a little too personal for my taste. Having no wish to be a voyeur, even if invited, I found the intimacies related in "Condom," for instance, off-putting.

But at her best, what she says of contemporary realist painter William Bailey - "once he's got us, he makes us see / deeper than we'd choose" - is also true of Lindner. The last stanza of "Moving" - from one residence to another - transmits a subtly disturbing frisson:

Last, we'll pierce the wall

to hang the faces we call ours:

bride face, groom face, infant face,

their interiors locked and off-limits,

like rooms we lived in, houses ago.

Robert Fink, the man who chose Skin for publication, has written an introduction that offers a "close reading" of Lindner's texts that borders on parody. Oh well. For those who like that sort of thing, that's the sort of thing they like. Read it, if you must, but do yourself and Lindner a favor and read the poems first.

What is it like to live and work and love from inside a woman's skin? I'm a man so I can never know for sure, but SKIN paints such vivid word pictures that it knocked me out of my own skin for a while, and into the author's. These poems are powerful.

I had the chance to hear this author read, and was moved to buy her book, which now is one of my new favorite poetry collections. Her work is sensuous, full of vibrant metaphor and imagery. Some poems are in regular meter, but most are in very musical free verse. The poems stand well alone, but together they read almost novelistically. The book is split into three sections: the first describes a woman's complex relationship with her husband and children, and the third deals mostly with sexual and romantic love. The middle section is a narrative sequence on the life of Alma Mahler, whose curious marital and sexual adventures play nicely against those of the first person narrator in the rest of the book. Best of all, these poems are immediately accessible, and yet yield up more on subsequent rereadings.

Dr. Lindner is my professor at my college, and I knew that she wrote poetry, but I had never read it. Her poetry is phenomenal. It speaks to the heart, the soul, and the mind.

Until a friend recently sent me a copy of Skin, I thought I had left my poetry-reading days back in college along with things like an all-pizza diet, Macroeconomics, and most of my hair.

As it was, the book sat on the shelf for weeks before I cracked it open to take a look. I'd like to be able to put into words just what sort of effect the contents had on me, but now I have an entirely new appreciation of just how limited my expressive talents really are.

Let's just say that, ever since, I have been searching everywhere for more writing by April Lindner. Join me -- you won't regret it.

I couldn't put this book down. I've read some of his previous work and took a class with him back in the early 1990s. He writes just like he teaches--he's a firecracker and you never know when he's going to burst out with something amazing.

I just finished the footnotes, which are usually banal in most books, but his footnotes are definitely worth perusing. I was laughing and thinking. I'm still "marinating" on the book. I think it's the best book I've read in the genre ever. Ever. Read this book! He dances playfully with theory and then slices through it with great observations. Great book. My copy had a "defect" (or was it?!) some of the pages were stuck together at the bottom and I had to cut them w/ scissors. I was opening up a gift, right? I think it was a printing error of some type, so that the pages were still sealed. But, it was serendiptious, given how provocative this book was.

This book is written for a cross-genre crowd: cultural studies, (sub)cultural studies, Latina/o studies, Chicana/o studies, Latin Americanists, Films studies types, American studies, and Critical Theorists (race, etc). The book would work well in some undergraduate courses, but is really best read by folks familiar with some of the theorsists he cites throughout the text. Thus, grad students or other academic types might enjoy the book most.

Nericcio goes further than Coco Fusco and others in this genre. The book is both well-written and well-researched. The title is great, too. This review is a lovefest and the book deserves it.

(Can anyone who gave K-Fed's rap album a five-star rating be trusted?) Doc Savage's review seems to be a total misreading of Tex[t]-Mex. But I am dignifying his comments by even implying that he did read the book--clearly he has not. Nowhere in the book does Nericcio claim that all Anglos are alike. Instead, Nericcio examines the seductive hallucination of " 'Mexicans ' in the eyes of Americans" across movies, newspapers , magazines and on television, and other forms of print (29). To me Doc Savage seems like a disgruntled student with a 15-year-old axe to grind. Get over it! Save your negative comment s for ratemyprofessor.com. The statute of limitations on your class complaints expired long ago.

Nericcio takes on just about every misconception out there of what is truly Mexican, Tex-Mex or Latino. He places the stereotyping's birth in context of time and history. There are powerful anectodes, wonderful images and solid research. He cooks the text together adding straight but colorful prose

The collective perception of what is Mexican or Latino, becomes less innocuous when the constant images we're bombarded with are taken apart. Helping Nericcio, make his case for deconstruction, Orson Wells, Speedy Gonzalez and even Rita Hayworth, among other recognizable icons, make an appearance.

Tex[t]-Mex is the reader's version of a rich a documentary. Let's hope this is where this book is headed.

Every once in a while a book or cultural artifact comes along that renders it futures differently, and from that moment on it becomes a point of reference for what is to come. William Anthony Nericcio's Tex[t] Mex is just such an artifact. The Mexican and Chicana/o bodies that populate it are imagined beyond their use value, or the pleasures taken from them, in order to see how vision and the state work hand in hand with the politics of national discrimination in the subtlest, and thereby most insidious ways. From a children's cartoon like speedy González, I mean, Gonzales, to scopophilic desires in the shape of Lupe Velez, or the Rita Hayworth we think we know, this is a special book.

Nericcio spent a long time creating this work which he began in 1989. Unless I misread him, he's attempted a movie in book form, but I think what we really have here is a psychological expose of an author who was weaned in Laredo on comic books, TV and American media, and ultimately trained in semiotics and postmodern philosophy.

The subjects he choses to 'deconstruct' include the Welles's movie TOUCH OF EVIL, Welles's Mexican wife Rita Hayworth, Speedy Gonazalez, Richard Rodriguez, Lupe Velez, and as I said, himself. He does not take himself seriously, and while this 'cast of characters' he choses sound suspect, this is serious work, and the effort shows. He's clearly had a lot of fun pulling this one out of the sombrero.

The goal here is a postmodern scene-by-scene 'movie' with script that explores the racism against Mexicans in American media based on 'sex-starved' cartoon mice, Hollywood dye-jobs to get that gringa look, name changes, self-hatred, cultural conditioning, art, commentaries by Rodriguez examining his hatred for Mexico, etc.

Touch of Evil is one my favorites and Nericcio's perspective gave me much to chew on, especially after chewing on fries and drinking a beer at Nepenthe a few weeks a go, and coming to the conclusion that this spot that Welles shared with Rita was a "poorman's" dream-version of a castle Orson never built while Hearst was once 70 miles south on Hwy 1, busy on his fixer-upper. No lusty and lawless bordertowns for these gents.

And Nepenthe now? A hallucination in itself with a row of Mexicano cooks grilling up crappy food while tourists show up to check out the view--which is mostly of each other.

My only critique of the book is that it, by default and based on its format, becomes a part of the American culture industry: that's entertainment 'Chicano style' but geared to grad critical theory students... willing to pay the price of admission.

I'd like to read a similar work like this but by a Mexican author who does the same 'movie' about--and against--Mexican media.

Addendum Feb 7, 08:
I just watched the 2000 edition of TOUCH OF EVIL and re-read this author's analysis. I have a different take, which is far more psycho-analytical.

Recall that this film was made in 1957 when mixed-race marriages, especially those portrayed on the silver screen, were far fewer in number than now. I think that Welles was actually using Heston and Leigh to represent himself and Rita Hayworth, a mixed race couple. That in itself would've been enough of a shocker for white-bread America in a 1958 theater. Not to mention the 'half-breed' daughter this union produced.

If Nericcio is correct that Welles was a Mexican/Latino wannabe, then it makes sense that he'd hire Heston as his stand in-- rather than a Mexican-- to PLAY a Mexican covered in brown shoe polish, who can't speak proper Spanish and who's newly married to the lily-white Leigh (who represents the white-washed Rita H. and who has a very strong personality). The genius of chosing Heston is obvious: in 1957, America would definitely need a familiar and 'trustworthy' 'Mexican' they could 'believe' in(!) I don't know of ANY Mexican who could play this part for a specifically 1958 American audience, and garner the sympathy Welles was seeking.
This analysis is also supported by the massively egotistical Welles playing Kane at various stages of his life in CITIZEN.
But in T.O.E., Orson is too huge to 'play himself' as Vargas, and opts for Heston to (almost comically) portray the innocent, handsome 'missionary' with a sense of justice-- the man Orson used to be in the early forties. Vargas, by the way, is the only ethical male character in the film. He represents the 'good' countered by the fat, bloated, lawless and evil American: Quinlan. I think Welles was simply showing his '58 audience the ugly American in all of his racist glory, something they did not want to see, or admit. On ethics, see also the scene where Vargas symbollically 'locks up' the three white lawmen in an elevator with bars, a space Vargas refuses to enter. An empowered Mexican sticking it to 'the Man.' THAT sounds like a sympathetic OW, at least to me.

Nericcio's attempt to find evidence that Welles was capturing his real 'self' (the racist Quinlan) in the film is probably wrong. Nericcio dug up some quote by OW's biographer proving his racism. This is based on the use of the term 'half-breed' by OW when refering to an American Indian car driver. And OW refering to Rita H as a 'gypsy'. This is a stretch.
More Freud:
The rape of Leigh in the movie may represent the rape of Rita H by her father in real life, which was mentioned by Nericcio in another chapter. It may be that Quinlan murders Uncle Joe Grandi (who was filmed licking his lips when he was finished sending Leigh a 'hands-off my brother' message) because he could symbolize Rita's father. It's very possible Orson would've liked to knock-off Rita's father --if he'd the chance. Uncle Grandi, the 'big daddy' who would LIKE to get his hands on Leigh, instead sends his gang to gang-bang Mrs Vargas in space HE owns --a motel.

On Orson's misogynism: In a foot note, Nericcio takes a shot at OW's scene in which a bottle of acid thrown by a hood at Vargas ends up sizzling a poster of "Zita" on the wall behind Vargas. 'Zita', the stripper who was killed in the opening car bomb scene, is, in my opionion, 'Rita', O.W.'s ex-wife for around 10 years by 1957. A symbolic killing of his ex?

Dawn Miller experiences new beginnings in her life after surviving personal disaster. Unfortunately, her run of sad luck seems to stay on track when she meets her cantankerous new boss, Matt Ivans. But Matt isn't as crabby as he pretends. It isn't long before Dawn warms to the sweet side Matt tries to hide with a sharp word. TEXAS DAWN is a nice read that pleasantly places the reader deep in the hearts of the Lone Star State and two fresh characters. Nice work Cheri!

TEXAS DAWN is an entertaining story filled with humor, romance and suspense. Rugged, tortured hero Matt Ivans meets his match in feisty Dawn Miller. Matt, labeled "Ivans the Terrible" by his coworkers, has sent previous assistants running for cover. Dawn refuses to let her new boss intimidate her. Through determination and humor, she tames Matt and has him purring. His love for Dawn helps Matt overcome an incident in his past that haunts him. Afraid to love Matt because of her own old wounds, Dawn refuses to acknowledge her feelings for him. When a stalker threatens Dawn, Matt comes to her aid. Their hunt for the culprit brings them together and leads to an action-filled, exciting ending. Freed of their pasts, they pledge their love. A fun read with a nail-biter ending.

I loved this book, one of the best Avalon romances, a real page-turner. I read another of Cheri Jetton's books, Blue Plate Special, awhile ago and liked it, also. Good book, good author!

Couldn't put it down. A great story with wonderful characters and even some mystery. A message to the author: You go girl!

The chemistry between Dawn and Matt with dialogue in this book was a page turner. A book that is very hard to put down. Dawn has a fiesty spunk to her that she will not allow any man to bring her down. The character is strong, witty and downright likeable. A strong female that you grow to love immediately when the book opens. The way she stands up to her boss the first day and the strawberry milkshake was really cute. Well readers this is a book that is a must read. You will simply love Dawn and Matt as they struggle through past problems to come to see what is really intented for the two of them. Ms. Jetton weaves a beautiful love story that will touch your heart, and bring joy and laughter with each word you read. If only the world had more protective men in it like Matt. This book deserves a two thumbs up and 6 stars. A great love story!! Cheri Jetton is not only a great writer but a terrific person that is there for anyone in a time of need. I can hardly wait for her next book to come out. Anyone that has not read any of her books you must go out and get them, they are great!!!!

The Rangers have a very interesting and colorful history. Unfortunately, not much of it positive. Nadel fills in all the blanks that existed from the Rangers formative years, stories that were too sensitive at the time they occurred, i.e. Rogelio Moret's mental illness, something that was never addressed in the papers of the day. I assume the Rangers had a say in the editing of this book and I commend them for not trying to make Nadel whitewash the team's history.

This book is where history begins and ends if you follow the Rangers.

This book tells you just about everything you would want to know about the history of the Texas Rangers.Eric Nadel did a wonderful job writing this book.It has a lot of great pictures and is a prominent part of my Texas Rangers collection.

Eric Nadel may be THE best baseball radio broadcaster in the country. His Page From Baseball's Past radio program is always interesting and this book follows the same pattern. A great book for the baseball fan and especially a Ranger fan

Eric Nadel, one of the most informative and entertaining radio broadcasters of his generation, paints a great portrait of Rangers' baseball and all of its oddities over 25 years. A must-read for any longtime Rangers' fan!

I've only been a Texas Rangers fan since 1994, and my wife gave me this book as a present in 1997. I knew the Texas Rangers existed before I came to live in the Dallas/Ft. Worth Texas area, but I never thought much of them. I didn't realize the characters and history of the team. If you're a casual Rangers fan, or a die hard Rangers fan, then you should have this book. It's filled with all kinds of informational pieces about the team's history, going back to the early 70's when they were the Washington Senators. Focuses heavily on the 1996 season in which they finally made it to the playoffs after about 25 years.

As the Texas Rangers now move into the Alex Rodriguez era, the book probably could stand an update, as a lot has happened since the book was published during the 1997 season, but it's a great read if you're into team history.

I am a biology teacher and use this book in my classroom. My students have to do a leaf collection. The students have found this book useful for identifing the leaves. The good part of this book is that it cover a lot of trees.

It's really just that simple. No Texas Arborist should be without this book. It is very well written. I can only hope that one day a new edition will come out with detailed color plates.

wide variety of trees in Texas. only drawback is the black & white drawings rather than color renderings or photos. but for the price, it's a good little book.

Well organized, the text fairly glows with the authors enthusiasm for the subject.

It's really well organized and written.

THe only way I can see to improve it is lots of colro plates..

I wish they'd write a book just like it on edible plants of texas.

Patty Leslie Pasztor and Paul Cox are two of the great gurus of native plant life in Texas. And they are just as friendly as this book is. I have many Texas native plant books on my shelf, but this if my first "go to" volume. I especially love Patty's ethnobotany commentaries. They add a great breadth of understanding to Texas human history, as well as its natural history.

Overloaded with antique adjectives and enough typos to make an honest proofreader weep, this narrative history by renowned Texas historian Stephen L. Hardin is nevertheless an entertaining look at the mudhole and (yellow) fever swamp that was the Republic's first capital. Gary S. Zaboly's gritty drawings--especially his bird's-eye view map (apparently unavailable on the Web) of the squalid little town on sluggish Buffalo Bayou--complement the period photographs of the major players. It's a view of early Texas that chauvinistic natives would rather outsiders didn't see (such as the two-room clapboard shanty that was President Sam Houston's first executive mansion) and a caution that even battlefield heroics can't guarantee a happy postwar life. Get a copy and be appalled, amused and advised.

A fascinating look at the near-dysfunctional founding of the city of Houston, which took root just as the dust was settling over the Texas War for Independence. It's an eye-popping revelation of the dawn of the first Texas capital, it's Dickensian characters, social order and bizarre caste system, not to mention its intolerable climate and general state of filth. Stephen Hardin, author of the seminal Texian Iliad: A Military History of the Texas Revolution, does what historians ought to do by transporting us to a different time and place and giving us a feel for what it was like to live there. Suffice to say that we would be as out of place in early Houston as we would be on Mars.

The story revolves around the hanging of David James Jones, one of thousands of furloughed Texan soldiers, who found themselves with little opportunity when their new country no longer had need of them. Mobs of them headed for Houston, where they remained idle and unemployable and became an embarrassment to the self-styled gentry and stiff-necked moralists who wanted rid of them. Although murder and mayhem and the daily slashing of one another with Bowie knives was common among this lower class, Jones found out that "rowdy loafers" like him paid a much higher price when the mayhem was directed at the gentry.

In telling the story of Houston's founding and its first efforts to make something of itself, Hardin also shows how the new Texas government abandoned its war veterans, many of them recent arrivals from the United States who had volunteered to fight for the fledgling republic. Jones was a particularly tragic case. He was among a handful of Texans who escaped the Mexican slaughter of the Goliad defenders and later fought at San Jacinto, where Texas won its independence. When the fighting ended, the government had little to offer its veterans other than huge tracts of land, which few chose to cultivate and, in any case, lacked start-up funds for ranches or farms. Instead, many sold the land to speculators and, like Jones, quickly squandered the proceeds in Houston.

Hardin introduces us to an assortment of truly odd characters, both rich and poor, including several ghoulish "medical" men, a self-righteous Yankee publisher and politician (an unbeatable combination), and ladies both of culture and of the night. The latter include Susannah Dickinson and her daughter, both Alamo survivors, who became prostitutes, although Susannah eventually found both happiness and respectability after marrying five times. Their story indicates the limited options women had at the time, which included little beyond marrying up or whoring. Like the abandoned veterans, they were victims of a society that closed most doors to them.

Regardless of what we may think of these early Houstonians, Hardin is right in cautioning against putting our thoughts into the heads of those who lived so long ago or applying our 21st century standards to them. Readers can't help but admire the considerable grit these people must have had to stick it out in such a place and their persistence in trying to make something of it and themselves.

Hardin writes like a polished novelist and he is a superb storyteller, but there's no mistaking his first-rate historical research (don't miss the fascinating endnotes). Throw in Gary Zaboly's superb illustrations and you have a truly unique look at the characters who populated Texas at the time of its birth.

AW

Texian Macabre is not just the story of one man's death, but of an entire generation of war veterans and their role in the new nation of Texas. Hardin paints a picture of David James Jones as the footstool upon which others stand to create American Texas. Jones and others like him won the Texas Revolution, but were robbed of their rightful share of what they helped to build and were thus relegated to being the backwash of society. Hardin does an amazing job realizing the inevitability of Jones' death.

Texian Macabre is a wonderful non-fiction story about the Texas Revolution and the early days of Houston. Hardin has found a character in history that had a part in every aspect of the Revolution from the Goliad Massacre to the win at San Jacinto. It is so amazing that one person saw so much, and he experienced everything from hero to villain. Hardin is an amazing historian and storyteller as well and makes the whole picture come to life. As you read, you can watch as the city of Houston is built before your eyes, every rat scurrying across the road, every rowdy loafer causing havoc in the streets. It truly is an amazing story of a fallen hero and the city of Houston.

A wild ride indeed. A taskfully interwoven tale that takes the reader on an incredible journey. Mr. Hardin paints a most interesting picture of how two men went from respected war heros to "rowdy loafers" who paid the ultimate price in order to make Houston a respectable city. I highly recommend this book on the basis that you can not beat getting a little education while being entertained.

Thunder on the Tennessee
By:
G. Clifton Wisler

The main character in the book was Willie Delamer. Willie is a boy who left his house with his dad to go fight the Yankees. He is very brave but also scared in battles.


Willie dreams of honor and glory as he goes to fight the yanks with his dad. Outfitted in a dashing uniform, Willie helps the Second Texas regiment to defend the banks of Tennessee. But Willie never thinks what horror this would bring to his family.


The story takes place all over Tennessee. Its also at Willie house, and the banks of Tennessee river.



The theme was all about the Civil War.


I loved this book. It thought me a lot of things. It thought me that sometimes people have war because of one little stupid thing they said or did. This book also thought me to always love your dad, and appreciate the things he does for you.

Thunder on the Tennessee
By:
G. Clifton Wisler

The main character in the book was Willie Delamer. Willie is a boy who left his house with his dad to go fight the Yankees. He is very brave but also scared in battles.


Willie dreams of honor and glory as he goes to fight the yanks with his dad. Outfitted in a dashing uniform, Willie helps the Second Texas regiment to defend the banks of Tennessee. But Willie never thinks what horror this would bring to his family.


The story takes place all over Tennessee. Its also at Willie house, and the banks of Tennessee river.



The theme was all about the Civil War.


I loved this book. It thought me a lot of things. It thought me that sometimes people have war because of one little stupid thing they said or did. This book also thought me to always love your dad, and appreciate the things he does for you.

Thunder on the Tennessee
By:
G. Clifton Wisler

The main character in the book was Willie Delamer. Willie is a boy who left his house with his dad to go fight the Yankees. He is very brave but also scared in battles.


Willie dreams of honor and glory as he goes to fight the yanks with his dad. Outfitted in a dashing uniform, Willie helps the Second Texas regiment to defend the banks of Tennessee. But Willie never thinks what horror this would bring to his family.


The story takes place all over Tennessee. Its also at Willie house, and the banks of Tennessee river.



The theme was all about the Civil War.


I loved this book. It thought me a lot of things. It thought me that sometimes people have war because of one little stupid thing they said or did. This book also thought me to always love your dad, and appreciate the things he does for you.

Thunder on the Tennessee
By:
G. Clifton Wisler

The main character in the book was Willie Delamer. Willie is a boy who left his house with his dad to go fight the Yankees. He is very brave but also scared in battles.


Willie dreams of honor and glory as he goes to fight the yanks with his dad. Outfitted in a dashing uniform, Willie helps the Second Texas regiment to defend the banks of Tennessee. But Willie never thinks what horror this would bring to his family.


The story takes place all over Tennessee. Its also at Willie's house, and the banks of Tennessee river.



The theme was all about the Civil War.


I loved this book. It thought me a lot of things. It thought me that sometimes people have war because of one little stupid thing they said or did. This book also thought me to always love your dad, and appreciate the things he does for you.

Thunder on the Tennessee
By:
G. Clifton Wisler

The main character in the book was Willie Delamer. Willie is a boy who left his house with his dad to go fight the Yankees. He is very brave but also scared in battles.


Willie dreams of honor and glory as he goes to fight the yanks with his dad. Outfitted in a dashing uniform, Willie helps the Second Texas regiment to defend the banks of Tennessee. But Willie never thinks what horror this would bring to his family.


The story takes place all over Tennessee. Its also at Willie house, and the banks of Tennessee river.



The theme was all about the Civil War.


I loved this book. It taught me a lot of things. It thought me that sometimes people have war because of one little stupid thing they said or did. This book also taught me to always love your dad, and appreciate the things he does for you.

The four authors were at the pivot point of American news delivery changing from morning and afternoon newspapers to live television. Forty years later they look back, using contemporaneous recordings and transcripts to describe the events they lived and to reflect on how it changed America and the news. Their insights about Oswald, Ruby and the officials involved bring back a flood of memories; they also enlighten us on how much the media have changed since those dark days and why.

There are so very few books that convey a sense of "being there" when it comes to the Kennedy assassination. This outstanding book takes the reader back to that fateful weekend of November 22nd 1963 in Dallas, Texas and does so in an open, honest and compelling manner.

"When the News Went Live" is written by four journalists who were in Dallas on that day covering the presidential visit. Bob Huffaker and the other three newsmen share many interesting stories that you will not find elsewhere and that have been untold for many years no doubt to all but their personal friends. This is why the book is such a valuable contribution to the historical record. Such first hand observation regarding not just those few seconds in Dealey Plaza, the murder of Officer Tippet and the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby, but how in fact the entire story unfolded, makes fascinating reading.

As an aid to anyone interested in the assassination, this book is a must have. I would emphasize - rarely do you find first hand knowledge like this - much of what is written on this subject is written by people many steps removed from the event where fact and fiction merge into one. Not so here. A fabulous book which is refreshingly free of the conjecture and myth that is so common in the Himalayan pile of work on the Kennedy assassination and is highly recommended.

We have become accustomed (yea, verily, some would say desensitized)to horror unfolding before our eyes in our very own living rooms. Bob Huffaker's book brings us back to a time before the desensitization, when we could scarcely believe what our eyes were telling us. I recommend this book highly to those who were there, watching as I was, and even more so to those who were not there. The young, raised in an era of suicide bombers, need to understand that it was not always thus.

1963 nov 22 brought to life again but with more professionalism.some very interesting facts that confirmed my own thoughts .

"With three shots from a mail-order rifle, Lee Oswald set off a worldwide tragedy that developed too fast to print. .... Broadcast journalism came of age in that crisis of grief and uncertainty, and as it drew its mourning audience, it helped to hold the nation together." -- Bob Huffaker; From the Preface of "When The News Went Live: Dallas 1963"

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"When The News Went Live: Dallas 1963", published in 2004, paints a vivid word picture of many of the incredible events that surrounded President John F. Kennedy's assassination in November of 1963, as seen through the eyes of four journalists -- Bob Huffaker, Bill Mercer, George Phenix, and Wes Wise -- who covered those events as they happened for CBS affiliate KRLD-TV and Radio in Dallas.

President Kennedy's shocking and appalling assassination on November 22, 1963, was the very first really big "Watch It Unfold Live On TV" news event of the television era, with four full commercial-free days being devoted to nothing but exclusive assassination-related coverage by all three major TV networks (with KRLD's on-the-scene Dallas reporters frequently feeding CBS-TV headquarters in New York).

And the four reporters whose intriguing stories unfold within this 224-page hardcover volume were right smack in the thick of things during the rapidly-developing events -- from the initial sketchy bulletins that told of the President being shot in Dealey Plaza during a motorcade drive through the city of Dallas -- to the announcement of JFK's death at Parkland Hospital -- to the capture of the accused assassin (Lee Harvey Oswald) in a nearby movie theater -- to Oswald's very own murder on live TV (with Bob Huffaker reporting live from the basement of the Dallas Police Department, where the single gunshot from Jack Ruby's pistol added yet another hard-to-believe chapter to the weekend's nightmarish story).

It was a mesmerizing weekend in American (and television) history, to say the least. And those days are re-lived with clarity in this engaging book by way of the recollections of four men who lived through and reported on those events when they were occurring.

"When The News Went Live" contains several excellent black-and-white photographs, too (some of them I haven't seen published elsewhere).

On a personal level, I have had the pleasure of communicating (via e-mail) with Bob Huffaker several times. He has been very cordial and gracious whenever answering the questions that I had for him. His personal insights into the events revolving around JFK's death are fascinating glimpses into the past, and are insights that I have enjoyed reading immensely.

A sample e-mail excerpt from Mr. Huffaker:

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"David, you're right about the presidential visit and motorcade being the main attraction that all Dallas media were covering, of course. But all our stations had limited capabilities for doing mobile TV, which then demanded either cables or microwave dishes--as well as a receiving dish within line-of-sight beaming or bouncing.

Hence the pool TV arrangements, limited to three planned locations. The local TV stations did live TV from the FTW {Fort Worth} breakfast, Love Field, and the Trade Mart. But this was, indeed, the day the news went live on television, unplanned.

WBAP-TV in Fort Worth had a non-running TV van, which they had towed all the way from Cowtown to Dallas Police headquarters, and we sent both of our KRLD-TV vans into duty--the Bread Truck at DPD and the Blue Goose on the 24th to the county jail, etc.

This was the first time in TV history when on-the-spot news suddenly demanded to go live from the scene. Before that, radio news on-the-spot descriptions such as ours that day were common (like the Hindenburg broadcast--radio only), and live TV was usually reserved for major speeches, sports, etc.

Bob" -- E-mail to this writer; May 30, 2006

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Relating to the subject of "WHEN THE NEWS WENT LIVE", I'd like to offer up the following observations as an extension of this book review.....

To those JFK conspiracy theorists who seem to favor the Oliver Stone-like or Robert Groden-promoted assassination scenarios (that feature a minimum of three gunmen and anywhere from 6 to 10 gunshots being fired at President Kennedy in Dallas' Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963) -- I always suggest to them that they ought to dig up some of the originally-aired "As It Is Happening" live TV or radio broadcasts from that dark Friday in American history.

After performing that exercise of watching a few hours of the November 22 television coverage of the assassination (in real time), or listening to some of the radio broadcasts in real time (which works just as well) -- I challenge anyone to then arrive at the same conclusion that was slapped up on the big theater screen in 1991 via Director Oliver Stone's blockbuster, conspiracy-laden motion picture "JFK".

Watching the day's events unfold "live" in front of you (or listening to them unfold on the radio as it was happening) should, in my opinion, provide everyone with a good general idea of how utterly impossible a task it would have been to have "faked" so much stuff that was being IMMEDIATELY reported to the world on live television and radio within minutes and hours of the President's assassination (and within a very short space of time following Police Officer J.D. Tippit's murder as well).

Via those original live TV/Radio broadcasts, you're not going to hear a SINGLE report that resembles anything close to the Oliver Stone/Jim Garrison-endorsed nonsense of:

"Three gunmen fired six shots at President Kennedy's motorcade today here in Dallas!!"

What you will hear, instead, is live coverage, as it happened, of a ONE-GUNMAN assassination taking place from where the majority of witnesses said it took place (the Texas School Book Depository Building), with no more than three shots having been fired by the SINGLE SHOOTER, which is a shot count that over 91% of the witnesses concur with -- including the small percentage of witnesses who heard only one or two shots, who are witnesses that certainly don't do Mr. Stone's "6-shot ambush" theory any favors.

Upon evaluating virtually all of the TV networks' live assassination footage from November 22nd, 1963, there is no possible way that a reasonable person could arrive at a conclusion that JFK was shot by three assassins, firing from both front and rear. Let alone arriving at an even more-cockeyed "8-to-10-shot" shooting scenario, as purported by Mr. Groden and some other CTers, which is an outlandish conspiracy-flavored scenario that has John Kennedy and John Connally being shot by way more than just the two Warren Commission-backed Mannlicher-Carcano bullets from Lee Harvey Oswald's rifle.*

* = And Mr. Groden's theory (that sports from 8 to 10 gunshots) also features an additional hunk of lunacy, in that Groden thinks it's very likely that NONE of these eight to ten shots came from the "Oswald window" in the Book Depository! (I'm not making this crazy stuff up here. I promise. Anyone who owns a copy of Robert Groden's 1993 book "The Killing Of A President" can check out Groden's preposterous theory for themselves, on pages 20-40.)

The bottom line is -- Very nearly all of the information being reported on TV and radio that November day favored a "Lone Assassin" shooting scenario (including the info concerning the Tippit murder in Oak Cliff), with very little evidence and information being broadcast that would support any type of a "conspiracy" whatsoever; and certainly no "conspiratorial" evidence that has ever panned out and "proved" that a multi-gun plot ended JFK's life in Dallas.

This is quite a telling "One Killer" fact. Because, in my view, if a vast conspiracy and subsequent "cover-up" had been in place on November 22nd (given the immense amount of TV and radio coverage, with reporters scrutinizing everything coming across their desks and digging hard for any type of case-solving clues during those first hours and days after JFK and J.D. Tippit were killed), I think that at least SOME pieces of the conspiracy would have leaked through to the sweeping television and radio coverage surrounding the two Dallas murders.

And I'm guessing that every reporter and newsman in the country (including Messrs. Huffaker, Mercer, Phenix, and Wise) would have loved to dig up some "conspiracy"-proving angle during that weekend in November of '63. Being the person who uncovered such a huge story would certainly be a feather in that reporter's cap, to be sure. But, as it turned out, nothing of that nature occurred....and has yet to occur all these many years later.

To think (as many theorists do) that these conspirators were so smart and so quick to have had the capabilities to immediately eliminate virtually every last scrap of information leading to a conspiracy plot of some kind, making sure that none of the "multi-gunmen shooting event" details seeped through to the media (multiplied by TWO separate murders as well, counting Tippit's!), is to think that any such evil-doers had powers similar to "Superman".

For example -- Almost every one of the initial reports concerning the number of gunshots heard by witnesses stated "3 shots". And while it's true that the very first report of the shooting from UPI's Merriman Smith (which was broadcast over all the television networks) stated "Three shots were fired...", it's also worth noting that Smith's initial bulletin was not the ONLY "three shots" account that was reported during those early hours just after the shooting.

For instance, Jay Watson of ABC affiliate WFAA-TV in Dallas (who happened to be in Dealey Plaza during the shooting and nervously reported the first bulletins to the unaware Dallas TV audience) is heard multiple times on November 22nd saying he heard "3 shots" fired.

Plus, several other members of the media are also on record stating their own PERSONAL beliefs that exactly three shots were fired by the assassin, including Robert MacNeil, Jack Bell, Bob Clark, Jerry Haynes, and Pierce Allman, among still others.

Some of the other "Three Shot" witnesses who were riding right in the Presidential motorcade itself include -- Photographers Tom Dillard, Robert Jackson, Mal Couch, and James Underwood. Plus, both John and Nellie Connally, who were riding in the same car with President Kennedy.

In addition, Presidential aides Ken O'Donnell and David Powers, who were both riding in the Secret Service follow-up car directly behind JFK's limousine, can also be added to the lengthy list of witnesses who heard precisely three gunshots.

And then there's also amateur filmmaker Abraham Zapruder, who took the most famous 26-second home movie in history when he captured the entire assassination with his 8mm Bell & Howell movie camera -- Zapruder showed up on live TV about 90 minutes after the President's murder took place and gave a graphic account of the horrifying event that had taken place in front of his very eyes.

Mr. Zapruder told the WFAA-TV viewing audience that he had heard two or three shots (but definitely no more than three), and he also demonstrated on live television where on the President's head he had seen the effects of the fatal gunshot. Zapruder puts his hand over the right-frontal portion of his own head to demonstrate where he saw the blood coming from JFK's head.

That's pretty amazing "LIVE" stuff from Mr. Zapruder's own lips (within approx. an hour-and-a-half of the assassination). And it's especially incredible and amazing if there had actually been many more than just two or three shots fired at the President, and if the fatal shot had actually (as many CTers believe) caused a huge hole in the BACK of John Kennedy's head, instead of the location where Zapruder placed it on live television -- i.e., the RIGHT SIDE AND FRONT portion of the head.

How could the so-called "conspirators" have possibly gotten THAT lucky with respect to Abraham Zapruder's live "on-the-air" WFAA-TV statements and head-wound "demonstration"? How?

And -- Could these ultra-clever conspirators have somehow managed to "manipulate" several reporters who were relaying the news live to the world immediately after the event, and have them ALL report on hearing just "three shots" (or, in a few cases, hearing only TWO shots, which is a number that certainly does not favor a "Multi-Shooter Conspiracy Plot")?

Or did the plotters just happen to get really, really LUCKY (again) when virtually all of the news reports favored the "Three Shots Fired" conclusion? With this 3-shot scenario matching the precise number of bullet shells that were found on the 6th Floor of the Book Depository after the shooting; and also perfectly matching the exact number of shots heard by TSBD witness Harold Norman, and also perfectly matching the precise number of bullet shells (3) that Norman heard hitting the plywood floor directly above his 5th-Floor location within the Depository.

Which, per Oliver Stone's movie, would mean that a full 50% of the ACTUAL number of gunshots were somehow inaudible to the enormous majority (91%+) of the earwitnesses! And, remember, Oliver has NONE of the shots within his movie's six-shot assassination ambush being "synchronized" in order to merge together with the sound of some of the other shots.

And yet, per Mr. Stone, we're supposed to actually believe that approximately 9 out of every 10 witnesses somehow missed hearing HALF of the gunshots fired that day! A reasonable thing to believe....or not? I ask you.

Were these so-called conspiratorial shooters so good that they could make 4 to 10 shots sound like only three to the vast majority of witnesses scattered all throughout Dealey Plaza? Highly doubtful, to say the least.

Again -- I'd advise all conspiracy theorists to sit down and watch the live TV footage....or listen to some of the surviving 11/22/63 radio tapes....and then try to find a "Multi-Gunmen Conspiracy" lurking within ANY of those original broadcasts. If anybody finds proof of a conspiracy via those means, please let me know. And let the world know too.

David Von Pein
December 2006
January 2007

My mom gave me the compilation of the 3 books and I enjoy reading them to myself and to my fiance'. The stories are real and I have the same temperment so it is like an autobiography of the Life I hope to have, You must read Marriage 911 and Still lickin' the spoon also fun and you actually learn something while laughing. I did.

This book is wonderful! I have read it 5 times and have purchased 10 or more copies and given them to friends! They all loved it and have been blessing others with the book as well. This book made me laugh and cry at times. It encouraged me. It let me know that others make the same mistakes I do. It was scary to think that there are 2 of us in the world that get ourselves into such zany situations! This is a must read for parents! Thank you for sharing your life with us. A Devoted Fan.

Becky and Ruthie began right. This is the book that started the whole WORM phenomena. This book was so much fun and so inspiring that at times I use it when teaching Adult Bible classes. The cat in the cooler is one of my favorite parts. Thanks Becky. Thanks Ruthie.

I would love to meet Becky and the rest of her family!! This was the first book I read by her. I was hooked. I always can't wait til her next book comes available. She is great, she must be the best friend, a woman could ever have. She is not afraid to be herself. If you want a great comedy with inspiration, too, Becky Freeman books are a must for your collection. A friend of mine got me hooked and I got others hooked as well on her books.

I met this book when it was sandwiched between half a dozen others, all of which a friend had loaned to me. I read it last and almost died laughing! Mrs. Freeman is genuine as well as humorous, which keeps the book from being just a running comedy; she really touches home with certain issues that I can relate to. I have, God willing, most of my life ahead of me and I love to hear stories from people who have "been there, done that" as this lady has. Thank you so much, Mrs. Freeman!