Texas Books

When you read this book you won't be reading a history book that puts you to sleep with dates, places and a few well known people. You also won't be reading the stories about these people from the author's point of view. You will be reading stories from the people who lived them. Raisins and Almonds and Texas Oil is well written and very well researched. It is easy to understand. You don't have to know of or be involved with the Jewish culture to enjoy this book. The people and events come to life in your imagination just like the stories your grandparents told you. You can relate to the people this book is about because they came to East Texas from all over the United States. During the depression "you went where the hope of a job was". That happened to be the East Texas oil fields. Picture if you will a small town going from a population of 500 to 10,000 almost overnight! What an exciting time it must have been.

"Raisins and Almonds" provides a vivid newsreel of the migration of Jews to the East Texas oilfields. It is a book textured with portraits of colorful characters and their improbable adventures. One of my favorite anecdotes is about a penniless diamond dealer. He displays his precious stones in rent space in a drugstore window, then winds up selling a diamond to Stanley Marcus. That's a Texas-sized story.
Until reading this book, I was unaware of the Depression-era chain migration of Jews from Oklahoma to the Kilgore-Longview region. It is reminiscent of the California Gold Rush (and it is the reverse of the Grapes of Wrath). Jewish youngsters who had gone to religious school together in Seminole, Okla., ended up being merchants and pipe-and-supply dealers (and possibly bootleggers) in Kilgore and Longview.
The chain migration of "boomers" is but one of the sociological patterns that emerges through this book's lively memoirs. Another common pattern is for women to launch the synagogue rather than men. Discussions about the lack of anti-Semitism in Kilgore reflect the egalitarianism of the frontier -- in this case, an oilfield frontier. This egalitarianism comes through at Mattie's Dance Hall where everyone socializes. There does not seem to be a "five o'clock curtain" in the oilfield communities.
The book's frank discussions of intermarriage are a realistic aspect of Jewish life everywhere. What is more remarkable is the cohesion of the Jewish communities detailed in this very readable book.

Jan Statman was able to capture the personal stories of how many Jewish people came to East Texas during the depression. They came to this G-d forsaken place, where one would never expect to find other Jews, with the attitude that they would somehow observe their Judiasm and make a living for their families. And they did.
I started reading, and couldn't put this book down until I was finished. I could hear and see in my mind the all of the families she wrote about. I knew that these stories were similar to those of second generation Jews everywhere. They did whatever they had to in order to be successful in this wonderful country, just as their parents had when they left Europe to escape religious persecution. Both were survivors, and proved it.
This is a remarkable book that reminds us of why so many people immigrated to the USA...Here, in America, even in Kilgore, TX all people who were willing to take a risk could make it. The American Dream come true.

This is a great book about a Texan who refused to compromise with big oil, big banks, and big business - the forces that shaped politics in Texas in the 50s and 60s - and was still elected to the US Senate. In the Senate he devoted his career to "putting the jam jar on the lower shelf," so that the little people could reach it. He came from populist East Texas and remained true to the Populist tradition long after it had died in the rest of the country. Dr. Cox has made use of Yarborough's personal papers and his public papers to tell the lively story of an American who had the courage to go against the grain. The book is well-written and is essential for anyone who wants to gain a deeper understanding of natiuon politics in the '60s.

Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, with Senator Ralph W. Yarborough riding shotgun in a limousine through the streets of Dallas on November 22, 1963 were both ordered by a secret service agent to hit the deck. History-altering shots were being fired at the motorcade into the lead car carrying President John F. Kennedy, Governor John Connally and their wives. Together they arrived at Parkland Hospital where they witnessed the horrific scene of the bodies of President Kennedy and Governor Connally being wheeled inside.

After the assassination, stories about how Yarborough and "refused" to ride with Johnson the day prior due to their ongoing "feud" became legendary. This feud among these giants of Texas Democratic politics of the 1960's--Yarborough, Johnson and Connally--serves as the fuel to power Dr. Patrick Cox's compelling story. Cox deftly applies his storytelling skills, honed as a former Texas newspaper editor, to weave a taut and fascinating tale of Yarborough and the other giants before and after the assassination.

Known in the U.S. Senate as "Mr. Education", Yarborough's fingerprints can be found on such landmark Great Society legislation as the Higher Education Act, the National Science Foundation, Head Start, Job Corps, Vista and many others. But Ralph Yarborough:The People's Senator is more than an academic treatise about the legislative accomplishments of Ralph Yarborough. He was a profile in political courage, the only southern senator from either party to vote for all the major civil rights bills from 1957 to 1970, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

This reader is left to conclude that LBJ's fall in 1968 and Yarborough's political defeat in 1970 market a turning point in American history. With protests over Civil Rights and Vietnam dividing America, Republicans began hacking away at the "ills" of the Great Society. Yet, the lynchpins of the Great Society and much of Ralph Yarborough's contribution still survive and thrive.

This book was a delight to read from start to finish. For political junkies this is pure 100% oxygen. But the novice should enjoy the ride as well. In Ralph Yarborough: The People's Senator, Patrick Cox has unearthed a giant of the 1960's and breathed life into a great American. Ralph Yarborough deserves our attention and appreciation.

My only regret about this book is that it didn't get published while Yarborough was still alive to enjoy it.
Yarborough was LBJ's peer & frequent rival but they buried the hatchet when JFK was killed and, together, created a massive record in civil rights, education and the environment. To understand the legacy of the 60's it is essential to understand Yarborough. It is doubtful that there will ever be a more thorough or more readable treatment of Yarborough's amazing roller coaster career than this one. Highly recommended.

I love his character development. Having read about 10 or 12 of Kelton's books I can say he is, in my opinion, the best Western author ever. I love the story lines and the way he develops and stages the story. You rarely know how the story will develop and the surprise is nice.

I read The Ranger's Law Trilogy before I went back and read The Lone star saga(the trilogy written first). This is the most well written and descriptive western I have ever read in my entire life and I believe that anyone who invests in this trilogy will have spent their money very wisely. The characters are great and after the first book in the series you'll want to read more and more about them.

Among the best character developers I've ever read, Kelton is a master in his discriptions. The stories lines are NOT predictable in a genre' that typically is. I will be reading more of his work.

I believe this is the only work on this topic that I have ever seen. It is very well researched and interesting. The book isn't a light read, however, but more the product of detailed research. I recommend it for those with a deep interest in Morocco and it's various forms of Islamic belief and practice.

An excellent work dealing with the development of Sufism and the Sufi orders in Morocco. My only complaint is that it only goes up to the 16th century.

This work goes into detail concerning the Jazuli order (but strangely not much detail in the life of al-Jazuli or even his followers active participation in resistance to Portuguese invasion of Morocco) and also in the role of Moroccan tribal families (especially the 'Seyyids') in political life in Morocco.

A valuable work for anyone studying Moroccan history, African history or the development of Sufism in the Muslim West.

Anything you would ever want to know about the soial and ideological foundations of Moroccan Sufism and how it fits into the wider Islamic context. From a demographical breakdown of saints to the follies of Abu Yiza, this book has it all and more. Certainly not for the faint of heart, though; Cornell tackles so much that a quick reading just couldn't do the book justice.

Miller's book stands out in the field of Mexican studies by emphasizing culture and uses heavy anecdotal evidence to provide insight into Mexico's golden age. This book does not read like a dry history book.

The field of modern Mexican history has been waiting for years for a book like this. Mexican culture is given its rightful place among the great cultures of the world in many pre-Columbia studies, but almost never treated fairly in the 20th century by political historians. This book would make a great text for a class in modern Mexican cultural history.

This is a bright, thoughtful and engaging book! Anyone interested in the culture of Mexico or the history of the Southwest will enjoy this historical perspective.

Ande writes with the close confessional voice of Sharon Olds, the ecstatic vision of Blake and the scientific pinpoint accuracy of Pattiann Rogers. Weaving through almost every poem is her quiet yet almost slap-stick sense of humor, if there is such a thing as spiritual slap-stick. Hopeful and wise, these poems are welcome in these troubled, self-absorbed times.

Jan Lee Ande's second full-length book of poems "Reliquary," solidly enriches what the reader encountered in the poet's first offering "Instructions for Walking on Water." Reliquary, defined as a receptacle, such as a coffer or shrine, for keeping or displaying relics is such an apt title because in "Reliquary" the poet invites the reader into a showroom where they find moments of consciousness where words push up against themselves and reveal new meaning. Words are given the sacred task to speak to worlds beyond and sometimes below. I was surprised as I engaged in the depth of the journey. If we think of books as sacred objects the poems of "Reliquary" must be thought of as sacred glimpses. Each poem opens a door. The poet provides the key. I have been involved in the medical field for twenty years so it isn't surprising that I was drawn to the poem "Learning Anatomy." Here a mother, as "study partner," is stationed next to her son and a human skeleton where they take on the task of learning the bones of the body and what each one means on many levels. What is surprising is what the poet finds in her dialogue with these bones and their articulations. The poem concludes, "After the soul has fled the body, after the organs / crumble into dust, bones pass time in the urn of the earth." This is what you'll find in reading Jan Lee Ande. Surprise! Regardless of background I'm convinced a door can open for anyone who is moved to read her. She pushes the reader beyond the ordinary and into realms where the familiar is new and fresh.

Ande's Reliquary is a superbly crafted collection of poetry that cracks through surfaces and reveals the sacredness and connected nature of underlying things: the celestial mix of physical and mystical that permeates rocks, trees, hearts, thoughts and which drives science, religion, and wonder.

Ande invites us:

If you are lost in this world, bewildered
in the middle ground
between heaven and earth, stand here.

And so begins the delicious ascent into the incredible world of Ande's language and imagery, for the very first thing one notices, before one even considers poetic form, is the sheer beauty of the language and the freshness of the imagery. In her poetry, words exceed their representational function - they sparkle, they shoot like stars through the soul - and, as one rereads each piece, the words emerge and reemerge in a metamorphosis that, for all its metaphysical qualities, is at the same time as grounded in realism as the texture of the page upon which the images are so craftfully arranged.

The title poem, "Reliquary," epitomizes the book's theme of sacredness-in-the-ordinary. Ande writes:

I do not have a theca issued by the pope
- the red wax seal and a length of thread -
to prove these relics are authentic.

My theca is the pollen sac of an anther,
spore case of a greeny moss,
outer layer of the pupa of the rose weevil.

However, it is the intangible collection of reliquaries that gives the poem a deeper import: questions (Do you believe in nature spirits, / can oak trees talk, have you walked on water?) and embellished remembrances (My sky blue traveling case. Sarcophagus / of the holy bones of my black dog who could fly.) remind the reader that relics are more than carefully preserved items - they are magical, they house our dreams, they hold incredible secrets.

Ande's gift for blending concrete and metaphysical images infuses her work. Yet, there is a fine balance between Ande's poetic gifts and the poems' forms, as well. Usually filling just one page, and usually written in couplets or triplets, the poems are easy on the eye; as a result, their framework provides just the right space for the reader to perfectly engage with the spirit of the poem.

I just finished reading Remnants of an Ancient Past and thoroughly enjoyed it! Only occasionally do I venture into reading a romance novel. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was so much more!

"Remnants of an Ancient Past" is an exhilarating new work from an exciting, talented new author. Crowley proves himself to be a gifted wordsmith that captures his readers' imaginations with his prose."

Sizzling romance, action, suspense, intriguing setting (an archaeological dig)--I found it all in this exciting novel! And anyone who has suffered from disillusionment in matters of the heart will find soulmates in Elisa Murchison and Dr. Blake Connor. I empathized with these characters in their agonizing attempts to regain their emotional balance, and I enjoyed numerous "I-couldn't-put-it-down" moments. A satisfying read!

This book is the authority on where to raft/kayak/canoe - you get all the info you need about drop-off and pick-up points, plus mile-by-mile information. Great book - I wish the authors would revise their last edition (2000)! Still, the 2000 edition is very helpful. Highly recommended to Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas canoeists/kayakers!

This book is the perfect guide to Texas rivers. It gives a description of each river, including different runs on each. It provides information on camping in the area, where to rent a canoe, rapid class categories, phone numbers for flow information and myriad other details that give you the confidence to literally pick a trip from the book and do it! I'm buying my second copy.

This Essential Reference book opens with detailed local fish population info and photos. Statewide canoe/paddling clubs are listed next along with recommended equipment diagrams & checklists and a glossary of useful river/paddling terms.(worthy of purchase alone) THEN you get an alphebetically listed, turn by turn, comprehensive diagram and description of multiple rivers in 3 states. Enough said? Too bad this is getting so hard to find!

Scarbrough has written an impeccably researched, compelling book. I lived in Georgetown 1997-2007 and watched it change from a sweet little town, past the outskirts of Austin's development, into something almost indistinguishable from any other suburban city in America. It has happened in Mustang, OK...in Owasso, OK...in Universal City, TX...in Georgetown, TX...in Vancouver, WA, in Sherwood, OR. If one ignores the landscape, the towns are virtually indistinguishable from one another. The rich heritage of the Czechs, the Germans (e.g., German Corner in Owasso) has been drowned in a flood of one-size-fits-all development. Now, not to sound completely gloomy, I do think it is possible for a city in the path of development to resist the Goliath. I think it is possible for a city to choose its own path of development, one that builds on its unique characteristics. Leavenworth, WA, is one such town. And I think more cities should choose to preserve their communities, rather than selling out their birthrights for thirty pieces of silver, rather than sitting back apathetically while their homes are swept away in a tidal wave of materialism. It takes just one leader, with a vision, and a willingness to work really, REALLY hard. Those are pretty hard to find. Anyway, the book is definitely worth the read. I found myself in a state of suspense several times, which was surprising considering that I had gone fishing in Granger Lake myself, and my children were cared for as infants by some of those same elderly Czech folk. A very good read, even for a girl who usually prefers fiction. I have given copies to friends in my new town, including the city council president, who promised to pass it along to the mayor, and to the owner of the local bookshop, where the Democratic Party meets. The town is now facing a vote that will help determine the path of its future development, and I am very interested to see how it all turns out. I hope Linda's outstanding book will help to turn the tide.

Road, River, And Ol' Boy Politics: A Texas Country's Path From Farm To Supersuburb by Linda Scarbrough is an impressively researched, superbly written and quite original perspective of the complete history of the state Texas. Scarbrough's depiction of Texas' history is outstanding for its individuality and historical documentation in that its approach is of a philosophical outlook more oriented to the political reasoning for Texas' development. A highly notable and strongly recommended read, Road, River, And Ol' Boy Politics is an excellent read for historians of American history in general and students of Texas history in particular.

Some lines from the introduction to "Road, River, and Ol' Boy Politics" concisely relate author Scarbrough's thesis: " The story of Williamson County's metamorphosis from agrarian backwater to suburban juggernaut reveals a pattern of how several of America's most successful agricultural counties became supersuburbs over the last half of the twentieth century. The twin pillars of this growth surge, most notably in the Dry Sun Belt, were dams and interstate highways funded by the federal government.....Who decided where to put these massive projects and why?..."

While this is the story of the transformation of one American county, Williamson, County, Texas, it is indicative of what has occurred across our nation. Yes, times they are achangin', and to read about how some of it happened is fascinating.

The author identifies three essential ingredients which are necessary for dynamic growth: a new water source, a new major highway, and "a politically skillful and determined leader." In Texas, these men are simply called good ol' boys. If you wish to dispute Scarbrough's premise just take a look at the booming areas outside of Austin, Dallas, Phoenix, Denver, and Salt Lake City.

Scarbrough is publisher of the Williamson County Sun in Georgetown, Texas. With advanced degrees in American Civilization from the University of Texas, she knows her subject well. She was among the first to write about environmental issues for the New York Daily News, and when she returned to Texas in 1978 she continued to discuss that subject on the pages of her family newspaper.

"Road, River, and Ol' Boy Politics" is replete with illustrations, maps, bibliography, and index. It's an important addition to the archives of Texas history, and that of our country as well.

- Gail Cooke

Mary Lu Abbott rounds up Lone Star lodgings, restaurants and sightseeing with lovers in mind. Recommendations are organized regionally and introduced with a brief history of the locale. Among the romantic stays are rooms in a former stagecoach stop; among the memorable restaurants is the palatial Mansion on Turtle Creek Dining Room in Dallas. The book includes major festivals and strikes a nice balance of activities, sightseeing and recreation of interest to both genders.
Chicago Tribune

The updated second edition of Romantic Weekends: Texas covers places to get away for a romantic weekend in Texas, outlining both popular areas and hidden places which can be easily accessed in a long weekend. From central Texas and the Southeast to the Panhandle, the regional breakdowns make it easy to look up particular areas, while specifics on restaurants and accommodations make this a winning set of recommendations.

This book offers the best places for romance in and around Houston, Austin, San Antonio, Dallas/Fort Worth, Corpus Christi, the Rio Grande Valley and the Mexican border. Only those lodgings with special appeal have been selected, and all have been visited by the author - former Houston Chronicle editor.Table For Two sections profile the most intimate places to eat, where ambiance and service are as important as the food. But this is more than a guide to the best places to stay and eat. Activities that a couple will remember forever are also covered - balloon rides over the desert, romantic strolls under a starry sky, horseback trails into the wilderness. Contact names, telephone numbers and website addresses are given. Maps, index and photos, plus hand-drawn sketches.