Iowa Books

I have not yet received this product, but I intend to get it. I have for the past two years followed Governor VIlsack's career. I have to tell you, I like what I see of the man. But it is not only politically what I like, it is personally what I like too.
The day after the 2004 election, I like many Americans was sad to see that the United States and the world was going to be cursed with another four years of BUSH/CHENEY :( So I sat down and wrote a letter to Tom Vilsack, the Democratic governor of Iowa. In my letter, I told him about myself, and then I asked him to consider running for president in 2008. About three weeks later, I got a letter in the mail. The post mark stated Des Moines, Iowa on it. I thought to myself, "Who is sending me something from Des Moines?" Here it was a hand written note from the governor.
Governor Vilsack and I have kept that correspondence going now for almost two years. It has resulted in many personal letters, some E-mail, and even a personal invitation to meet the governor.
Folks, that is the kind of man that Tom VIlsack is. He believes that it is ordinary Americans that do extraordinary things with their lives that make this country great. Tom Vilsack believes that the problems of America will not be solved on K Street, but on Main Street. Just look at what he has done for the state of Iowa since 1999, when he became governor... www.governor.state.ia.us Look at what he stands for at www.heartlandpac.org This is a true leader and one that I am proud to also call my friend.
His resume screams out what leadership is...

1. Mayor of Mount Pleasent, Iowa, 1987 - 1992
2. Iowa State Senator, 1992 - 1998
3. Governor of Iowa, 1999 - 2007
3. Chairman of Democratic Governors' Association
4. Chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council, 2005 - present
5. Founder of the HEARTLAND PAC, August 2005

If I left anything out, I am sorry, but I think that you all get the jist of this review. Like I said in the Title Bar, Tom Vilsack is the only choice in 2008.
Thank you.

When I was growing up, my parents always had the radio tuned to WMT-AM, so I listened to the University of Iowa Hawkeye football and basketball games. That interest continued into my adulthood, in the fall, I would take a radio outside with me so that I could listen to the football games while I did yard work. Therefore, the years covered in this book, 1964-1988, are deeply ingrained in my memory. I also remember those few times when the Hawkeyes were on television in the bad years and how badly they would get beaten.
This book is a description of years of futility, especially the three Lauterber years, where the record was 4 - 28 - 1. Listening to those games was an exercise in pain, in two of them; Iowa was outscored by an average of more than three touchdowns per game. Teams would beat them without throwing a forward pass or ever having to even punt. However, it ends on a very bright note, as Hayden Fry turned them into a winner and even a contender for the national title.
It has now been almost twenty years since University of Iowa football started its second century of existence. To date, the results have been very promising and optimism is everywhere. I loved this book, not only was it an inside look at twenty-five years of Iowa football, but it was also a trip down memory lane for me. The book is well-written and describes the conditions of the football program as it went way down and then back up to where it was exciting once again.

This book deserves five huge stars. It tells about a girls feelings and it can inspire you like it did to me. Learn how to still contact your friends when they move or live raf away from you, in this book. I would also recommend you to read: P.S. Longer, Letter, Later. That's also a great book and if you love writing letters and friendship then you'll love this book it's about Tara Starr and Elizabeth. Like it, go grab it!

Frequently forgotten or misjudged, this book provides one of the most hilarious plots ever written. The "common sense" of Huck is always fighting for bring Tom's lunacies to Earth, but the question is, why should we do that? Tom's reveries are the key for happy travel with a sane state of mind, providing the key which erase the nuance between what should be and possibly, what actually is. A delightful book.

In an age when it seems like publishing houses are being snapped up right and left, it's a delight to read interviews with noted publishers who took a chance on writers they loved, regardless of the bottom line (and even made a profit doing so - sometimes). There are nine small press publishers represented here and the interviews are quite detailed and fascinating to read. Those interviewed are Henry Duncan, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, David Godine, Daniel Halpern, Sam Hamill and Tree Swenson, James Laughlin, John Martin and Jonathan Williams. They represent, in no particular order, the publishing houses of City Lights, Cummingham Press, David R. Godine, Copper Canyon Press, Ecco Press, New Directions, Black Sparrow and The Jargon Society, among others.

If you are interested in preservation, vernacular architecture, architectural history, or just in understanding the beautiful and functional adobe buildings of northern New Mexico, this book is an absolute must-read. I've lived in Santa Fe my whole life, and have always loved adobe buildings, but I still learned a lot from it. What it's not: a superficial collection of pretty pictures to show you how to make your faux-dobe house look all "Santa Fe Style".

Also, if you are thinking of stuccoing your adobe house, put down the trowel and read this first. Please?

Alexander Haig was President Reagan's former Secretary of State. In this book he gives his views on international events in the Middle East, the Falklands, Poland, and Lebanon and spells out his differences with the Reagan strategists. He thus reveals his rivals' flaws as well as his own. This is an interesting personal first hand look inside the Foreign Policies and the Department of State of the Regan Administration. Well worth the read.

The reality of chronic worldwide hunger and malnutrition persists despite world food production increasing faster than population. An Informal Consultation on the Response of Land-Grant Universities to World Hunger was held at Iowa State University in 1978. It focused on the role of land-grant universities and churches in the continuing battle against world hunger. This collection of the symposium papers, edited by Dieter Hessel, is the product of that conference.

The Ames Consultation was convened by Dr. John T. Conner, moderator of the United Presbyterian Church, who invited pairs of Presbyterian participatnets - a teacher or administrator and a campus minister - from ten land-grant schools, plus consultants and staff. Their charge was to begin a process of rethinking their institution's responsibilities in research, curriculum, training, and extension.

Believing that "their" problem is really "our" problem, too, the participants critiqued the strengths and weaknesses of current U.S. food programs involving developing countries and the land-grant schools' agricultural curricula and training programs. Parallel concerns of the United States and other countries for meeting world food needs and ensuring small farm survival are considered. Underlying this, the implications for the campus ministry are explored.

The wide-ranging and candid discussions run the gamut from analysis of existing agricultural political coalitions influencing research and aid to questions of post-Green Revolution responsibilities of agricultural schools to poor countries. Among the innovative ideas advanced is the suggestion to establish courses in peace education. Collectively, the papers reflect a lively awareness of the appropriate agricultural agenda for the last two decades of the twentieth century.
--- from book's back cover

Alone Among Friends is the first full-scale biography of W. Robert Parks, the eleventh and longest-serving president of Iowa State University. The life of Parks and the evolution of his university are intimately intertwined compelling this biography to serve as a history of the nation's first land-grand university as well. Alone Among Friends shows how a people's college, under Parks' stewardship, went on to become one of the nation's great institutions of higher learning a the peer of even the more prestigious European university systems. Alone Among Friends is a detailed, candid, occasionally humorous, exceptionally well presented and highly recommended biography of the man who, more than any other, is inextricably linked to Iowa State University.

This is the only book of its kind written by an observer of the Amana Colonies during the era when the people lived under religious communism.

Mrs. Shambaugh made repeated trips to the Amanas and became a lifelong friend of the Amana people. This rare book tells of life in the Amana Colonies at the turn of the century.

The Amana people voted in 1932 to live under free enterprise, incorporating their land and businesses as the Amana Society and establishing a separate Amana Church Society. The people brought their own homes and many opened small businesses. With their traditional German family style restaurants, the Amanas today are Iowa's premier tourist attraction.