Texas Books

We love all of Docia's books and look forward to many more!

Although I feel the use of exclamation points is excessive, I found the book to be a great reminder of all of the ghost stories I heard while growing up near the Texas coast. It brought back a lot of great yet frightful memories. I am now on my 3rd book by Mrs. Williams, I think it would be great to take her ghost tours. Happy Haunting!

Take it from someone who was toiling down in the trenches chasing the bad guys, this book is a first hand account of how the Reagan administration and Speaker Wright fiddled while the savings and loan crisis burned. It explains how, and why, the government for years did not try to stop the corporate criminals who went on one of the largest financial crime sprees in the history of the United States. This is an important work, not only for its historic value in explaining this particular outbreak of white collar crime in the savings and loan industry, but also because it carefully lays out the patterns of control fraud that will continue to recur in different corporate venues as long as people are willing to steal and lie to try and gain an economic advantage. This should be required reading for every financial regulator in the United States. Alan Greenspan, who recently argued that personal reputation in business practices should be more important than enforcing rules, should read it twice (or as many times as it takes until Mr. Greenspan can remember why he trusted Charles Keating).

William Black's book, The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One,is on the one hand an act of courage, and to an excellent journey into the morass and collapse of the Savings & Loan industry. Bill Black should know better than anyone, as he was one of the inside attorney's trying to coral bankers gone wild on highly speculative ventures...

Mr. Black walks us down the chamber of horrors of the Savings & Loan collapse, and gives us a bird's eye view of bank corrupt.
What is most interesting is that Mr. Black finds the trends within in the industry itself, that it was actually CONTROL FRAUD were bankers, accountants, appraisers, bank executives and politicians colluded together to bring an already shaky and weak industry down. Everyone who wants to understand that the Savings & Loan was the first cracks in the empire, civilizations have always been brought down by poorly run fractional reserve fiat currency bankig systems.

What was the cry from people from Alan Greenspan was for more deregulation, and at the time, Greenspan, a banker who was with Morgan Stanley prior to his excellency/chairmanship/ at the Federal Reserve System, was that the Lincoln Savings & Loan, was one of the best run S&Ls in the country...

What resulted was deregulation and desupervision... Attorneys and accountants for hire, audits performed on Savings & Loans which made them look like a picture of financial health when in fact the S&L industry had terminal cancer...Massive insolvency, virtually no reserves, coverups, and famous politicians genuflecting to the Savings & Loan industry, the Keating Five; John Glen, John McCain, Alan Cranston, Dennis DeConcini, Donald Riegle..All pressuring the Bank Board for leniency...

Every American should read this book...this control fraud of the eighties in the Savings & Loan industry makes Enron look like a game of childrens marbles..We learn little, we remember little in this United States of Amnesia..

The Best Way To Rob A Bank Is to Own One, by William Black is a true sign that there is a crack in the American empire's treasury.. A recommended read if your really want to understand what happened in the Savings & Loan collapse, which the AMERICAN TAXPAYER WILL PAY FOR $200 BILLION OR MORE.

As Thomas Jefferson once said, "Banking Establishments Are More Dangerous Than Standing Armies." Hats off to Bill Black.

Barry J. Dyke, RIA, Hampton, NH

This book describes in detail a look at the part of the Civil War West of the Mississippi River that seems to be overlooked by history.

This is a great work on Parsons' Cavalry in the Civil War: The 12, 19th, and 21st Cavalry, Morgan's Texas Battalion, the Tenth Texas Field Battery, and Johnson's Spy company. I have an ancestor in the 19th Texas Cavalry and I found this work to be complete and accurate. Well, either it is accurate, or the Confederate Research Center is accurate, but that's another story... Anyhow, this fine work covers the early Civil War days in Texas, the wild skirmishes in Arkansas, the raid into Missouri, the Red River Campaign (where the Texans, outnumbered 5 to 1, inflicted such punishment on the Yankee cavalry, infantry, artillery, and ironclads that they retreated across the Mississippi, never to return). Yee-Haw! It is a great book - I get goose bumps just readin' it.

Big Bend Landscapes by Texas painter Dennis Blagg is a breathtaking, coffee-table artbook of oil on canvas landscapes so captivating, they seize and hold one's attention as surely as the finest of photographs. Mood, mystery, natural serenity in the Big Bend National Park of Texas fill these compiled outdoor paintings austere mountains and dry deserts with a very special dignity and beauty. A joy to simply page through at leisure, each individual painting is enhanced with a brief but informative commentary in this outstanding and memorable collection.

Unique landscape artist, Dennis Blagg, shares selected paintings and drawings of West Texas. He captures more than the camera can and his style evokes a viseral response. Perhaps you must have "been there, done that" to appreciate that each one is a gift. Blagg also shares brief notes with each entry. That adds a personal touch with a underlying theme of conservation for this special landscape. I must confess I skipped right past the introduction by Ron Tyler and straight to the views of the Chisos that I can't get out of my mind.

Big Bend Landscapes is a feast for the heart and soul for all you Big Bend National Park lovers out there and believe me there's a lot of them. Dive into all the moods of the desert and let it carry you away. I just returned from a trip to Big Bend on Feb 25, 2003 and my question is "Was it real or was it Blagg?" Make the book purchase and do the trip and you be the judge.

Great photography with poetic like readings. A different approach to enjoy this incredible Park. Actually comes alive. Took the book and relived some of the pictures with the readings in person. My way of enjoying nature through anothers eyes and words.

Great book with the most beautiful full page photos of Big Bend National Park that I have ever seen! Makes me want to go back right away. It was well worth the money...

The review by Mr. Fowler pretty much sums up the book. For me there isn't anyone who can capture images of Big Bend quite like James Evans. I have long been a fan of his work and have waited for this book for many years. For those who have never been to the Big Bend region this book offers a chance to be introduced to what makes it so special. It isn't just the landscapes, it is the people. Big Bend Pictures communicates to me what makes west Texas so special. To stare into these pictures allows me to travel back to the region and experience again the heat, the dry air, the clouds(good lord the clouds, just look at how he captures the clouds) and the people. Gaze into the eyes of his subjects and know what it means to live life. Big Bend is like no other place on earth and James' photographs are like no others.

The Big Bend area of West Texas is both seductive and elusive to visitors. The immense scale, loneliness and beauty of the desert scenery can immediately charm any visitor to this remote borderland, and many books have succeeded in extolling these virtues. However, the human denizens of the Big Bend can be quirky lot, with a big dose of individuality an apparent requirement for remaining in these parts for very long.
In this new large-format book, James Evans has succeeded admirably in capturing for the viewer the essence of the human dimension of this vast land. Yes there are panoramas and thunderstorms on these pages, but it's the direct and intimate portraits of the people that will capture your attention. Elderly ranchers (and ranch women), young children, Anglos, Hispanics, funerals, dances, homes, animals - all powerful and direct visual statements. Many of these scenes aren't pretty. There's grit and violence, poverty, sadness; but it's all real. Evans has spent the past 15 years living in the Big Bend (he has a studio and gallery in tiny Marathon, TX), taking time to really know his subjects, gaining their trust, opening a window of truth before his lens. As a regular visitor to these parts, I feel Evans has finally captured the real essence of this amazing region for all of us Big Bend lovers to enjoy.
There are 102 duotone photographs, most are full or double page. A real bonus is James' comments about each photograph in the rear appendix. It is there we come to understand a little more about each of his subjects, and ultimately a bit about Evans as well. And good value, too; lots of book here for the quite reasonable price. And I like the horned lizard endpapers.

Ron Tyler's seminal work on the Big Bend of Texas is required reading for anyone who plans a trip to the "Texas Outback". This enchanting out-of-the-way part of Texas has invited explorers and adventurers for years and Tyler's historical treatment brings all the mystery and drama of the region to the surface for the modern traveler. The maps and historical photographs blend with the text to give the reader a "sense of place" that separates the Big Bend area from other southwestern landscapes. A must read for anyone interested in the remote lands of North America.

The Big Bend region of Texas is one of the most remote and least populated areas of the United States. From the center of Big Bend National Park at The Basin it is more than 100 miles by road to the nearest Supermarket in Alpine.

The author has compiled an authoritative history of the sparsely-populated Big Bend. The prose is scholarly rather than poetic, but the story is fascinating. Included in the book are maps, old photographs, a listing and description of historic sites, a thorough bibliography, extensive notes, and an index.

The Spaniard Cabeza de Vaca and his colleagues probably passed through the Big Bend in the 1530s; and the Spanish conquest began in 1580. Later the tide was turned as the Apaches and Comanches in the 18th and 19th century depopulated the Big Bend with their constant raids on Mexican settlements. In the 19th century the "gringos" arrived at the Big Bend and established ranches, mines, and wax factories -- the wax coming from the candelilla plant. One of the most interesting sections of the book concerns the conflict between Mexican revolutionaries and bandits and the U.S army in the early part of the 20th century during the era of Pancho Villa. The book concludes with the creation of Big Bend National Park in 1955.

The Big Bend is a tough country with a colorful history and this book is worth reading, especially if you plan to visit Big Bend National Park.

Smallchief

Billy Bardin is a story about a boy and his marginalized grandfather, how they get to know each other, some history, and work together to save one of the oldest trees in the state. Based on real events, "Billy" is a great read, regardless of where you are.

I really liked this book. The story is about a boy who takes on land developers and gets an historic oak tree moved, rather than cut down. It's based on actual events that happened in Arlington, Texas a few years back. It's an excellent book for the older child, probably 9 on up. My 11-year old grandson loved it.

Ms. Penson has also written a wonderful book based on events in Arlington in the 1870s, You're an Orphan, Mollie Brown, with a heroine sure to appeal to today's adventurous girl.

This is a collection of 14 essays that vary greatly in focus and scope from the narrow nearly academic "Study of the Woodcreepers of Tropical America" to the wide open view of "Mexico by Train" and Through Peruvian Amazon by Gunboat".

Skutch's training is as a biologist and naturalist but his talents as a writer and his enthusiasm in the field have combined to help produce these fascinating essays. As someone interested in the birds and natural history of Central and South America I enjoyed each chapter. The Epilogue:"The Appreciative Mind" resonated with some of my own thoughts on birds and nature. Here again Skutch has written something I wish I could write, a philosophy of the appreciation of nature. It is particularly enjoyable when reading to find an author that has already collected thoughts that you yourself have stumbled about on. Here Skutch writes so eloquently on the enjoyment of nature and birds and the imperative to protect what has taken millenia to form that I have the greatest admiration of him.

Alexander Skutch traveled around much of Latin America as a USDA botanist in the 1930s and 1940s. His job involved such work as surveying the Amazon for rubber trees and studying the various plant life found in this remarkable region. However, his real love was the birds. It's difficult for birders to make their sport sound interesting to lay people but Skutch has a way with words that will capture the imagination of anyone with an interest in nature. He's a gentle soul who lived through interesting times, including the 1948 Costa Rican Revolution. His essay, "Birding during a Time of Revolution," is not only one of the most fascinating birding adventures I've ever read but it also perfectly captures the follies of man in this region, and throughout the world for that matter. My other favorite is "Birding on a Gunboat in the Amazon"-an essay about a military mission that Skutch made in the 1940s to survey the Amazon for rubber trees. While the times have changed in Central America, many of the birds remain the same. If you enjoy Latin America, and its culture, history, flora, and fauna, you will cherish this book and read Skutch's stories again and again.

People ought not only to read these sorts of books more often, but to write them. Birdsong is the sort of character-driven novel you'd expect from Walker Percy, in which characters, during the course of a day or a week, discover their freedom, realize the influence of others in their lives, the motivation behind that influence, and whether or not it has a right to be there. Dewey confronts each aspect of his past, vaguely aware that he is in a rare introspective moment that will allow him to separate his past from his present, and ultimately, choose his future.

The novel is set in 1958 before the drug, etc. scene. So the characters are valid to the period. A wonderful novel.