Texas Books

I have really enjoyed this book it is historically correct and well referencedit has been a big help in my research.

It's a tall order, because there are so many good books on Texas history, but Sara Massey's book really shines. I've always been a sucker for cattle trail tails, and I was deep into Haley's book on Charles Goodnight when I went down to Gonzales for a book fair and signing. I missed the author, but picked up Texas Women on the Cattle Trails anyway. From the moment I started reading, I couldn't put it down!

The information gathered is well-researched and each of the stories entertainingly written. I very much appreciated information, where available, on burial sites and original homesites - thanks to this book, I was able to find Harriet Cluck's gravesite in Cedar Park, making an educational reading experience a personally affecting one as well. I learned a great deal more about the town just by reading this book.

This oughta be on the required reading lists in Texas history courses at universities (wouldn't hurt for women's studies majors to read it as well). Texas Women on the Cattle Trails provides provocative and enlightening information on a well-canvassed but rarely understood portion of Texas history.

Almost everyone has heard of Annie Oakley, Belle Starr, and Calamity Jane. But how about Kate Medlin, Hattie Cluck, Margaret Borland or Cornelia Adair? These are just four of the sixteen fearless women featured in "TEXAS WOMAN ON THE CATTLE TRAILS," a compendium of short biographies written by sixteen Texas writers, and edited by Austwell resident Sara R. Massey.



Some of the featured women were young newlyweds when they went up the trail. Others were middle-aged mothers, and one was pregnant. They were widows, business women, heiresses. Some were cultured and educated. Almost all encountered Indians, bandits or rustlers. They endured blizzards, floods, stampedes, disease, death. They made deals with cattle buyers and sellers. They witnessed a new country in its earliest growing pains, and most lived to tell their tales, even to embellish them over time.



Take Minta Corum Holmsley of Comanche, Texas, who rode her horse up the trail sidesaddle, she said, "because we didn't have better sense." On that drive she claimed to have met John Wesley Hardin masquerading as an Indian, and later to have encountered a hundred Sioux who had fought Custer at the Battle of Little Bighorn. She managed to save her favorite cow pony by screaming in one Indian's face until he let go and fled in fright.



Another woman, the widowed Margaret Heffernon Borland of Victoria lost four of her seven children to one epidemic of Yellow Fever. And Margaret herself died at the end of her own cattle drive in 1873. The Wichita, Kansas newspaper announced her death on July 5, at the age of 49, as having been caused by "mania, super-induced by her long, tedious journey and over-taxation of the brain." Her nephew had her body shipped back to Victoria and she is buried in the Evergreen Cemetery.



I particularly enjoyed glimpses of familiar Texas places as they were in the 19th century: the loud bawling of the cattle as they forded the Shoal Creek in Austin; a house in Banquete, once a Confederate hospital and said to be inhabited by ghosts; a roving band of hide-skinners scouring Goliad after a brutal winter decimated the cattle population.



All of these sixteen were ranchwomen, skilled at riding, either sidesaddle or astride, or at handling a horse or mule-drawn wagon. They were proficient in the use of lariats, branding irons, whips, and castrating knives. They carried their share of the workload, and faced all the same hardships and hazards of driving cattle up the trail as the men. In these pages, you won't find a single damsel in distress. There are no dance hall queens or saloon floozies either. The sixteen women profiled here validate the importance of ordinary lives and offer new insights into the reality of the frontier West.

There's enough excitement and derring-do in J. Marvin Hunter's "Trail Drivers of Texas" for anyone interested in the Old West, but out of curiousity, I picked up a new book on the cattle drives, "Texas Women on the Cattle Trails."
To my pleasant surprise, the book was every bit as good as Hunter's great classic. Edited by Sara R. Massey, this new volume features the stories of sixteen remarkable women who either accompanied their husbands up the trail or managed herds on their own. Facing the same hazards as the men, these women rode astride or sidesaddle, drove buggies or wagons, and endured thirst, danger, storm, and stampedes. None of these women were common people; all exhibited above-average ambition and courage. Most went on to lead successful lives, but their stories, ably told by eighteen knowledgeable contributors, are not altogether happy ones. Even so, the book is interesting, thrilling, and inspiring. A good addition to anyone's Old West collection.

Reading the Texicans gave me a glimpse into an era of Texas history that I had never visited. I thoroughly enjoyed this historical novel and read with excitement and anticipation to what was next for the Stockman family. This book is a must read for anyone who enjoys historical periods in Texas history.

Dear Elizabeth Maul Schwartz: I bought a copy of The Texicans when you spoke to your San Gabriel Writers League earlier this month. I must tell you that I loved your novel! It also fills in a gap in my Texas collection. We often forget that before Austin and his colonists that there were residents under Spanish rule. The 1806 opening through the creation of the Republic of Texas as shown in the your book capturers the turmoil of life under Spain, then under Mexico and then the Republic. Your characters are vividly drawn. Your book is compelling. What happens to your characters becomes important to the reader. In places you tug at our heartstrings, then in others you excite us as we are swept up into the action. Again, thanks for a great read. Your book compares favorably to novels published by the large commercial houses. Sincerely, Roger M. Busfield, Jr.,

I was expecting a rather boring historical treatise. Instead I had a great read which brought both laughter and tears. A really great first effort that I'm sure could achieve national prominence given the proper exposure.

Schwartz captures the entire essence of why the battle for Texas was fought. I have never seen it so clearly stated-the clsh of ideas! The Texicans is a great read from a very talented first writer.

"The Texans" is not politically correct, is dirty and raw and presents history through the confluence of a Jewish cowboy, a runaway slave, a German emigrant, a Mexican girl, renegade Rangers, and lots of Commanches. There are no real heroes, but a number of villains; yet, the story manages to produce a deeply satisfying emotional impact. These people laid the foundation of Texas.

The character of Katrin, the German emigrant, was especially interesting. Thrust into circumstances beyond her control, she adapts why still remaining so rigid in many ways. When asked if what she and her husband had accomplished would matter in the long run, she replied "You have to think on what we do today and whether we do it right. That's all we can do."

If you enjoy American historical fiction that isn't "sanitized" for today's world, you will enjoy this read. Also, for a similar read with lots of humor but an interesting look at US in the 1800's try Turpentine: A Novel.

Nina Vida's new novel THE TEXICANS opens just after Texas has been admitted into the Union. In sturdy, spare prose Vida tells the story through the intersecting lives of four immigrants: Joseph Kimmel, a Polish Jew from St. Louis who has come to settle his dead brother's estate in San Antonio; Aurelia, a young Mexican woman, a bruja who can change the weather with a scream or banish cholera with a deep stare; Katrin, an Alsatian immigrant, whom Joseph marries to protect her from a covetous Comanche chieftain; and Luck, a runaway slave who falls victim to a band of renegade Texas Rangers taking the law into their own hands. This is a rough-and-tumble Texas, lawless and chaotic, and Vida throws her characters against it, almost defying them to find their way through. Some of them prosper; others fail.

Joseph Kimmel is a Missouri schoolteacher who lives a simple life instructing 13-year-old boys in Greek, Latin, and mathematics. When he learns of his brother Isaac's death in Texas, he sets off with one horse, one pistol and two saddlebags filled with provisions, riding alone into an unfamiliar wilderness. Once on the Texas plains he's waylaid by Luck, the runaway slave, who steals his horse. After two months afoot, Joseph meets up with Henry Castro who is bringing Alsatian immigrants to the town of Castroville that he has founded west of San Antonio. There Joseph meets Katrin, a young, flighty woman, who is being stalked by Ten Elk, the local Comanche leader. At Castro's urging, Joseph agrees to marry her and take her away from possible harm. Moments after the wedding, a Texas Ranger shows up with Luck hog-tied and slung over Joseph's saddle horse, so Joseph decides to take Luck, too, rather than leave him in the hands of this ruthless Ranger. On their journey to the Guadalupe Mountains, Aurelia is pawned off on the group by a camp cook turned Indian scout who is afraid of her supernatural powers. Together these four set out to build a new life in the Texas Hill Country.

It is difficult to tell such a story without sinking into unlikely coincidence and predictability, but Vida pulls it off. She is especially strong with dialogue and coveys to perfection the cadence of a foreign accent, the texture of a slave dialect, and the wordy excesses of unschooled pioneers. Clearly she has done much research and her feel for the common folk, with all their faults and prejudices lends authenticity to the period detail.

I longed for more of "sheep on the gentle dips and sloping honey-colored hills," more of the Medina River "running fast, freshets of water catching twigs on the bank, knitting them together, then spitting them out." But this is a brutal Texas filled with Indian depredations, bogged steers drowning in quick sand, lynchings, and killing fevers. There's little time for pondering star-studded prairie skies and bluebonnet meadows.

In her Acknowledgments, Nina Vida says, "I didn't know if the world needed another book about Texas." My response to that is any vigorous, atmospheric book like this one is always welcome. It's just so much better when it is about Texas.

I loved this book. It's not Hollywood's Texas - it's the real deal - full of characters that leap off the page & stay with you. It's a wonderful mix of Indians, runaway slaves, a Jewish cowboy, vicious renegade rangers, a young Alsatian immigrant girl and a Mexican bruja (witch) with healing powers, among others. Besides which, the writing and detail are astonishing.

This is a view of Texas we're not used to. An exciting story of outcasts and misfits and unexpected Western heros(and heroines). Every persecuted ethnic group is represented and the usual good guys (like Texas Rangers) aren't good. With a cowboy in the White House and the Mexican border an immigration battleground, this book gives the historical background for Texas' current events. But best of all, it's a surprising and fascinating tale.

I seem to be the only person who has gone to SAS to actually have read this book. It was really good, pretty bleak, but I loved it.

All SAS students should read this book to get some insight into JWO!

...
I can honestly say that I have not read J-Wo's book yet, but I will for sure because it's gotta be totally good. i am also going to purchase: This Book is for All Kids but Especially My Sister Libby. libby died- by jack simon who is also known as breakfastclub and is dairyman88's boyfriend.
Anyways good luck reading this book. i totally recommend it just becuase J-Wo is the author.

Although i have yet to read this book- J. Works (J-wo) is the coolest man ever. GO J-WO!

one of the excellent books to come lately on the texas ranger a most for ranger book collector.

I thought the "Real West" couldn't get any better than Knowles' collaboration with Joe R. Lansdale (Hisownself) on 1994's engrossing _Wild West Show!_ I was wrong. Knowles gets down and digs up the real history of the Rangers, and pulls no punches. It's an honest, unblinking, exciting and amazing adventure through time, with excellent photos and commentary. Whoever says history is dull hasn't seen _They Rode for the Lone Star _. This is a coffee table books that belongs everywhere but. Cant wait for volume 2!

Tom Knowles' "They Rode for the Lone Star" is a fascinating history of the early Texas Rangers. It is full of the facts on which the legendary tales are based. It is respectful but unbiased. And it is thoroughly engaging and immensely entertaining.

Filled with illustrations and annotations, it is not only a great read from beginning to end, but also the perfect book to pick up and browse when you have a few minutes. Unfortunately, it is so well written that if you start to browse through it, you may find yourself reading through to the end.

I am anxiously awaiting the second volume that brings the Rangers' history up to the present.

Knowles' book is a must for anyone interested in Texas History. Knowles' weaves a history of the Texas Rangers perfectly into the blanket of Texas folklore, so that the reader can easily follow and understand the development and importance of the Texas Rangers. His descriptions of battles and the people who fought them are superbly done. Excellent discussion of frontier indian-fighting and Ranger strategy.

A real coffee-table book, but you won't want to let it rest there. Great photographs and illustrations. I'm looking forward to the post-Civil War Ranger History which I hope follows soon.

Are you about to build a new home, serve on a school building committee, or design a public park for a client? Or do you just like to be in and around jewels of architecture? If you answer "Yes," get Second Day delivery on your new copy of Think Like an Architect.

This is a rich compendium of letters (chapters) written to friends and colleagues, replete with drawings, photographs, and tools such as "10 ways to explore and understand a building," plus a thorough Seeing List, as well as a Reading List. A blend of architectural history and 21st Century reality -- deftly connected by Dean Box's passion for and knowledge about the importance of architecture in our daily lives and our cultural legacies - these are two hundred of the most helpful and inspiring pages you'll read. It also is a fast read. Yesterday in fact an active aficionado friend who has been intimately involved with half a dozen projects in recent years excitedly told me that he'd, "just finished, the best, most enjoyable book on architecture. I lost sleep because of it, staying up to read it at night and awakening early to continue." I knew the title he was about to tell me.

I am not an architect; merely someone who appreciates the end results of good architecture. I do not routinely read books about architecture, or books written by architects. But as a long-time admirer of Hal Box's architectural work, I was curious how a book titled Think Like an Architect might read.

Short answer? Terrifically! I learned something interesting about the history, art and science of architecture in every chapter.

As I finished the book, which I accomplished faster than I would have liked or imagined, it occurred to me that Hal Box accomplished with this book what Vitruvius, the first century BC Roman architect, espoused as the goals of good architecture: commodity, firmness, and delight. The book accomplished its program of encouraging me to think more like an architect (commodity); the ideas and illustrations are thoughtfully and artfully presented in a sturdy format which will withstand years of referencing and re-reading (firmness); and Professor Box puts forth his ideas and opinions, earned over a long and distinguished career as an educator and practicing architect, clearly and entertainingly (delight).

Whether one plans to build or is simply curious about how to do it right, Think Like an Architect is a must.

Think Like an Architect opens the door to those of us who love space, love to think about space and building houses we love to live in. As someone who has built many homes and lived inside those spaces he conceived and created, Hal Box is able to not only share his love of the creation of places we want to be but to tell us how to get there on our own--clearly.
I am building a second home in Mexico and find that reading and re-reading this book--especially the considerations--continues to inform and clarify my thinking about the project.
Margaret Keys

As someone who has an interest in architecture but whose knowledge of architectural theory and history are superficial and spotty, I found Hal Box's book Think Like an Architect an especially rewarding read. Written with the confidence earned from a long, successful, and satisfying career, his book is a straightforward explanation of both the intention and process of producing the kind of buildings that are life-affirming and enduring. His writing is entirely free of the thornscrub argot that makes most architectural criticism an impenetrable thicket closed to "outsiders" and hostile to dialog. Thus unarmed, Mr. Box may therefore be vulnerable because he dares to use old-fashioned words like beauty, graceful, charming, and harmony. But to me, watching my local landscape erased and replaced by generic chain stores and anonymous neighborhoods, this language is as welcome as a summer thunderstorm falling on parched ground.

It was especially interesting to me to learn how a post-war generation of eager young architects were "brainwashed" by Modernism's cerebral rationality. This I can understand, as the enthusiasm followed their experiences of the Great Depression and World War II. Something new was certainly in order. But even newness can become stale and lifeless. Today, as a new generation of architects meets perhaps the even greater challenge of designing buildings that are "sustainable" or "green", we may be seeing another great age of inspired innovation, expanding the smaller scale vernacular experiments of Sam Mockbee, the elegant shelters of Glen Murcutt, and the social works of Cameron Sinclair's Architecture for Humanity Foundation, to influence and shape the mainstream market. I hope that architects, planners and consumers will avail themselves of the wisdom in Mr. Box's book as they participate in this great new adventure.

Homesick for Texas, and all those good eats? This is the book for you. It is much more than a cookbook, it is a piece of Texas to be read and savored. Having eaten at all the locations of Threadgill's and having spent many (too many, according to my college transcript) at Armadillo World Headquarters, opening this book was like a trip back home. Sure, there are the receipes for all the Threadgill's classics, including all the vegetable dishes. Sure you can try to make the wonderful chicken fried steak, but intertwined in all those recepies is the history of Threadgills, and the people who were there. You learn the thinking behind the place many called home, you remember the brand names of products that made Texas cooking great. You also get a bird's eye view of the Texas music scene and all the colorful people who inhabited that time and place. Threadgill's kept me from getting too homesick when I left Dallas, and moved to Austin. This book keeps me from getting too homesick for home.

Hands down, the greatest cookbook ever written (take that, Better Homes & Gardens!). If you've never been to Threadgill's, you've never truly experienced the bounty of God's green earth - but you can get a fantastic taste of it with this book. I cook something from this book almost every day, which may not mean I'm the healthiest soul alive, but I sure get my veggies! If you thought a down-home cookbook was just a bunch of artery-clogging recipes for fried vegetables, you're only 10% right. In addition to fabulous recipes, this cookbook is actually an entertaining book to sit down and read! Trust me, it will find its way to that revered shelf in your bookcase that's reserved for the family Bible and the baby books. Yee hah!

This past haunt of Janis Joplin is a true Austin institution. And, so is it's food. But don't expect recipes similar to the Lutece cookbook or Cooking with the Master Chefs. These are master chefs of the home grown type. Their chickenfried steak with cream gravy is well, artery clogging delicious. The recipes are simple to follow, the ingredients are few and the taste fabulous. And, the narrative relays some great memories of Threadgill's. I've enjoyed cooking these dishes for other expatriated Texans and we're in heaven!

As someone who moved from Austin to Washington, DC years back---and whose friends still ask me why, I don't have an answer. But I can tell you one of the things I miss is Eddie Wilson and Threadgill's. It's not fancy, it's not meant to be, but as Eddie says "This is not a lobster taco". This isn't fancy food, this is just good food, something you could eat every day, something that doesn't require an engineering degree to assemble and a degree in civil engineering to balance on the plate.

Lynn Cuny has a gift for portraying the animals in her stories both as worthy of our care as well as needing respect for their needs as animals. Unlike some writers of animal stories, she always makes it clear that wild creatures are usually better off being left wild. While her stories often contain humor, they are always touching.

This book was given to me as a gift and I couldn't put it down. This heartwarming book takes you into the emotions and thoughts of wild animals. They come alive and you see them as the caring, loving and intelligent beings they are. This book will make you never able to look at a wild animal as a "dumb" animal or expendable resource again.

This charming vignette of stories will leave you with a new and wonderful perspective of wildlife, as well as a great deal of respect for the people at Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation in Boerne, TX. This book is a must read for anyone with a love for the wildlife of these United States.

Through Animals' Eyes: True Stories From A Wildlife Sanctuary is an anthology about the creatures cared for by Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation (WRR). Founded by the author in 1977, WRR provides sanctuary for orphaned, injured, or displaced wildlife, rehabilitating them for eventual release - or providing them with permanent care in large natural habitats if they are deemed nonreleasable. WWR also gives permanent care to exotic wild animals that have suffered from the pet trade, roadside zoos, or research facilities. From the raccoon with burned feet who perseveres to survive, to an abandoned emu who makes friends with a one-winged vulture in a game of pick-up sticks, these tales put one in the skin, fur, or feathers of the creatures who have paid the price of man's expansion. Through Animals' Eyes is strongly recommended for all animal lovers.

For Texas birders this book is a must. Ranges are much more reliable than any other guide available. Is great for travelling to an area to see what you might be able to see or to back something you have found.

The new TOS Handbook is an indispensable reference to the current status of Texas' avifauna. The range maps are excellent and show seasonal changes in gray scale. Anyone interested in birding in Texas will want a copy of this book. It is not a field guide, but a reference on status and distribution.

Whatever your general guide for the identification of birds is while in Texas you need this this companion book. Current information as to the status of Texas birdlife written by two premier Texas birders. A percentage of the profits are given to the Texas Ornithological Society.

Jack Clinton Eitniear
Editor/Bulletin of the Texas Ornithological Society
www.Texasbirds.org

If you want to know the current status of any bird in Texas you need this book! Good range maps make it possible look at individual counties.

The book I purchased was in the condition advertised. The savings compared to local bookstores was substantial.

The photos and descriptions in this book make it a terrific guide to Hill Country plants.

When I am out on the range in the Hill Country of Texas trying to identify a plant, Jan Wrede tells me what I need to know.

The pictures and descriptions have been invaluable in my interpretive walks and hikes. This is a must have for hikers and hill property owners. I bought two! One for me and one for a friend.