Texas Books

Steve Hilty does a wonderful job of translating the results of published scientific papers into the language of the curious layman without compromising the fidelity of the original research. With a strong academic background, coupled with many years of field experience and a formidable talent for communication, he successfully transmits the joy of the natural historian and the excitement of the pioneering ornithologist.

The book consists of twenty essays on the ecology, behavioural ecology, biogeography and evolution of Neotropical birds, each based on three or four seminal scientific papers. The topics covered include flocking behaviour, species diversity, intra-tropical migration, seasonality, song, hummingbird foraging ecology, seed dispersal and much more. Many of the topics arose as answers to the questions posed to the author by fellow travellers, so they address a host of the main questions the curious naturalist will ask. The examples and original research come from all parts of the New World tropics making this book of direct relevance to those travelling anywhere in Latin America. Specific sites mentioned range from La Selva in northeastern Costa Rica to Manu in Amazonian Peru, and from Panama's Barro Colorado Island to the Oilbird Cave in eastern Venezuela. Species like the Yellow-rumped Cacique and Oilbird and key Neotropical groups like the Vultures, Hummingbirds, Antbirds, Tyrant Flycatchers, Manakins and Cotingas are treated in detail.

In sum, a great introduction to the biology and natural history of American tropical birds for those who are new to the region and a fascinating companion for tropical veterans. Whether your interest is birding, natural history or simply enriching your tropical travels, this book should be on your shelves - or, better still, in your backpack.

It is a shame that this book is out of print, because as more birders discover the wealth and happy confusion of birding in the tropics this book would find a ready audience. Birders who take their first trips to Central or South America step into an alien world, where the rules of the temperate zone do not apply.

Hilty's essays draw upon many years as a birding tour guide, kind of a "frequently asked questions" collection. He discusses answers to questions such as: Why do birds in the tropics migrate? Why are tropical birds often so colorful yet so hard to see? Why are tropical mixed flocks so large and varied (up to 50 or more species in a single foraging flock), and how can so many birds forage together? In the course of the essays, Hilty also provides a great deal of insight into tropical ecology. I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the tropics in general, and tropical birding in particular.

One might guess by the title of Steven Hilty's book _Birds of Tropical America_ that he has written an informative though dry field guide, one that lists a number of birds of Central and South America but is not really a book to sit down and read. In fact, Hilty has written an engaging and extremely interesting natural history work covering many aspects of neotropical bird behavior, breeding, and evolution and is one of the finest popular science books I have read in a while.

The book is organized into twenty different chapters, several illustrated with black and white drawings by artist Mimi Hoppe Wolf, and includes an extensive bibliography. Roughly half of the chapters deal with aspects of neotropical avian behavior and physiology that are applicable to most if not all of the region's birds, while the remainder deals with specific types of birds, such as antbirds, hummingbirds, and vultures. The focus is largely on birds of rainforests but Hilty also discusses birds of mountains, grasslands, and in one interesting chapter, islands of the Amazon River.

The first few chapters tackle common questions asked about tropical American birds, questions Hilty has encountered over his years as not only a researcher but as a leader of birding tours in Central and South America. For instance, why are so many tropical rainforest birds so spottily distributed when there appears to be many hundreds of square miles of suitable habitat? Hitly wrote that distribution patchiness is a basic structural component of tropical rainforests; in an area that might contain up to 500 bird species, a particular acre or so of forest will only contain 100 to 200 species. One answer to this question is the existence of microhabitats, areas perhaps not obvious to naturalists recently arrived from temperate latitudes, but quite obvious to the local fauna. Some birds are found only along the edges of tree fall openings, while others that live in the canopy avoid areas where the canopy is discontinuous with tree fall openings. Birds might be rare because of their place on the food chain (harpy eagles occur generally at low densities though might be widespread throughout neotropical rainforests), of the lower population densities of tropical birds (the populations of the most common Peruvian rainforests birds are one-tenth that of those in temperate forests), the secretive nature of many understory rainforest birds (making them appear rare), and the large territories of birds (when compared to temperate species). A later chapter adds additional information; Hilty noted the work of Jurgen Haffer, who proposed that during the Pleistocene epoch the rainforests of South America at times contracted into isolated units he called refugia and that this repeated forest breakup increased speciation and helped produce many often small and localized ranges of birds in South America. Another theory, proposed by among others biologist Angelo Capparella, noted the importance of the major rivers of the Amazon Basin, which fragment the ranges of many widespread species and can act as barriers to gene flow; in a later chapter, Hilty noted how big a barrier the river can be, at one spot in Colombia, nearly 2,000 miles from the mouth of the Amazon River, the river banks are nearly five miles apart, a huge barrier to many tropical species that scarcely like crossing even forest trails.

Interestingly, many tropical birds migrate. No, not the famous temperate-to-tropics-and-back-again migrations, but migrations within the tropics, often quiet migrations that only involve some species and an aspect of the neotropics that took researchers many years to discover. These are short-distance migrations, perhaps a few miles or a few hundred miles. The quetzal and the bellbird for instance are fruit-eaters that breed in mountain cloud forests during the drier months of the year, but migrate downslope during the rainy season in search of drier conditions and more fruit. Even lowland forest species migrate to seek concentrations of fruiting trees, while others migrate to take advantage of the short-lived and unpredictable seed crops of bamboo, or in areas south of the Amazon Basin, are fire-followers, seeking out recently burned grasslands for breeding.

In a chapter on why there are so many more species in the tropics than in temperate areas Hilty noted the many niches unique to the tropics, for example antbirds, follow the swarms of raiding army ants, which flush small prey for them to eat, while other birds follow monkeys or the large peccary herds for the same reason (the latter of which are followed by the nimble, roadrunner-like ground-cuckoos).

Hilty discussed hummingbirds in two chapters, noting not only the many different hummingbird niches (some are nectar thieves, poking holes on the outside of flowers to get nectar, not aiding the plant in pollination one bit, others are territorial, while still others forage over large areas) but that they even have different niches at different altitudes (wing length and body weight have a huge influence in the type of flight and behavior a hummingbird is capable of and as higher altitudes have less dense air and produce less lift, some species have different ecological niches at different altitudes).

A number of chapters focused or dealt with breeding behavior. One interesting discussion analyzed why males might cluster together in lek assemblages when they are so extremely competitive. The "hotspot" theory of Jack Bradbury argued that leks form in areas where females forage widely for food and the males have a good opportunity to catch the attention of these wide-ranging females, while the "hotshot" theory of Bruce Beeler and Mercedes Foster argues that the success of a few dominant males attracts the attention of less successful males, who bide their time and try to move up the hierarchy.

Other interesting topics include the flycatchers (part of a group of birds called suboscines) which have been among the few animal groups to colonize northwards with the appearance of the Panamanian landbridge and the influence of environment on song (different terrains affect song propagation in different ways).

Really a fascinating read. The saga of the Yount's, it truly a Texas tale. I really enjoyed the vintage photos, I have seen the oil manisons in Beaumont and they are quite spectacular, though the most famous the McFaddin Mansion was not shown, but this was a book that focused mainly on the Younts and though their mansion on Calder is long gone, the Great Gatsbyish Caldwood mansion is still extant and still breathtaking. This book is well researched and I believe anyone with an interest in a great story will enjoy this book: Mrs. Yount was one of a kind. Highly recommended.

This is a very readable and very interesting account of the rise of the Yount-Lee Oil Company and Pansy Younts subsequent contribution to the American Saddlebred Horse industry. This is unlike previous accounts in that this account is ACCURATE and based completely in fact. I enjoyed it immensly and would recommend it to one and all.

Black Gold To Bluegrass is an excellent and very readable book about the Second Spindletop Oil Boom, which occurred in 1925 in Beaumont, Texas. The authors have very diligently researched all their facts and have made the people involved in this story seem very real to the reader.

This isn't just a cookbook, it's a visual feast. Just reading the recipes makes you want to run to the kitchen and rattle the pots and pans. It is a MUST HAVE for anyone who loves to cook or even someone who doesn't, because it tempts you into trying each and every dish. Easy steps, well explained and palate pleasing. You won't be sorry and you will be the envy at every dinner party. GET IT NOW!!!

This is a great cookbook. I've had time to experiment with several of the recipes and am very pleased with the results I've obtained. I can't wait to entertain again - this stuff is great! Thanks!

This book has delightful and tasty receipes. It is for the discriminating cook as well as those of us that are more "common" with our talents. The variety will carry you through the year and still have a good surprise for New Years dinner the next year. Check out the photos and you will see how down home cooking can be presented elegantly!

White, the military history is fascinating, the truly gripping parts of this book are about his life before and after the war.

It cannot be stressed enough that there was a time when a person could not attend any school or pursue any academic program they wanted just because of the color of their skin. (To correct the previous reviewer, Owens earned his PhD from The Ohio State University . . . there is no "University of Ohio.")

A moving memoir of an extraordinary man who, despite all the insults and mind-numbing experiences he lived through, overcame all obstacles to serve proudly and with honors in the U.S. Army and complete a college education with postgraduate degrees. As a professor, a researcher, an international consultant, his chosen pathways always involved service and research benefiting his fellow man. This is the story of an authentic hero--not a fly-by-night sports or music idol--a REAL, genuine heroic role model of a man. Should be required reading for today's young men.

Late in World War II, a severe shortage of combat troops forced the United States Army to rescind its policy of racial segregation. They began assigning African American army units to combat duty. Until then, these soldiers had been relegated to such thankless tasks as burial detail, supply transport, mess hall staffing, and longshoreman work. This change, author Emiel Owens contends, played a significant role in spurring the civil rights movement twenty years later.

The son of a Smithville farmhand, truck driver and jack-of-all-trades, Owens excelled in school and graduated at the top of his high school class. He was serving in an ROTC unit at Prairie View A&M when the United States entered the war in 1941. In the spring of 1943, Owens was thirty-four credit hours from a horticulture degree when his unit was ordered to report to Fort Sam Houston. There they began training on the 155-mm "Long Tom," an artillery gun used by the newly formed 777th Field Artillery, an African American Battalion that fought in major battles in western Europe, from the Hurtgen Forest to the Ruer Valley and over the Rhine.

At the outset of the Rhineland campaign, Owens' gun battery was called upon to fire the opening salvos across the river. The five thousand guns of XVI Corps followed in unison, firing for three hours in preparation for Operation Flash Point, the crossing of the Rhine. "The fire was deafening, and the earth shook ... and gave the impression that hell itself had come ...."

There are many stirring battle scenes and acute observations of war in this book. Owens has a knack for detail, describing the Siegfried Line and the human-made fortifications: Hitler's "dragon teeth" and the hundreds of pill boxes situated with overlapping fields of fire. He also manages to see Texas in the the black furrowed fields and long green valleys his units passes through. They looked "as if they had been plucked from around the Hill Country back home in Central Texas and just relocated to this spot." But there is also an undercurrent of racial injustice glimmering just beneath the surface of the narrative. Sometimes it's seen in a trifling way: the curious stares from Europeans unused to black faces. But other times it's insidious: the army's policy of breaking up African American combat units overseas rather than back in the States, with a result that no homecoming African American troops received a ticker-tape parade down Broadway.

Owens returned to Smithville a decorated veteran. With the help of the GI Bill, he went back to Prairie View A&M, got his degree, and went on to to graduate work at the University of Ohio. He ended his academic career as Professor of Finance at the University of Houston. His story is a uniquely engaging one, giving a view of the social history of an African American soldier in combat, as well as providing noteworthy battlefield accounts of some of the more formidable World War II campaigns.

Charles Fishman is to be given tremendous credit for the dedication diligence and generosity it took to assemble this anthology . His openness to the work of other poets, and his deep feeling for the suffering of the Holocaust combine here to bring a large and varied collection of writing.

My personal poetry collection includes hundreds of volumes, but this October 2007 2nd edition of Blood to Remember: American Poets on the Holocaust is by far one of the best.

From Marjorie Agosin, the Chilean daughter of Jewish refugees from Odessa and Vienna, to John Ciardi, Anthony Hecht, Philip Levine and Barnett Zumoff, the famed New York Albert Einstein professor of endocrinology, the sheer brilliance of dozens of poets in 478 pages defies description.

What's almost as amazing, though, is the labor and love that went into an almost letter-perfect copy--with not a single typographical error yet found in hundreds of poems, footnotes, biographical notes and acknowledgments. Without a doubt, this 630-plus page compilation of Holocaust poems is the most remarkable literary feat of this memorial genre I'm privileged to own.

I am greatly honored to have two poems in this volume, beside those of several good poet friends, but most remarkably, hundreds more whose work I revere from a distance.

One cannot adequately praise Charles Ades Fishman, a poet with stunning style, for the years of work he has invested in this remarkable collection of American poets writing on the Holocaust.

Buy it.

--Alyssa A. Lappen

As a contributor to the anthology, I am astounded as to the diversity of the poets who have contributed, as well as the excellence of the quality of their work. I am honored to be among the very well known poets, such as Alexie, Levertov, Forche, Piercy, Stern, but am just as humbled to be among those lesser known, but excellent writers, whose words are just as powerful and moving.
A wonderful addition to your library on Jewish studies, as well as a powerful teaching tool for Jewish history, or Jewish writings.

Sandra Cohen Margulius

Bone Justice continues the Seth Strummar western series with a storyline that is in equal parts horrific and romantic. Elizabeth Fackler's crime fiction has always been celebrated for its low-key but hard-boiled drama. Her careful and evocative prose depicts the outlaw Strummar trying to figure out if his partner has turned into a man who deals in women. In the course of the book we get to know the life stories of three different women who, while true to the era in which they're alive, also hold significance for today, especially in the way Fackler demonstrates the violence they have to endure. Fackler tops herself here by setting the youngest woman on an unspoken spiritual quest--and a believable one--that will redeem a broken life. Elizabeth Fackler has a unique approach to the novel and speaks in a voice all her own. She takes familiar elements and makes them seem startling and new through the dazzle of her prose and the humanity of her forgiving gaze. ED GORMAN'S BLOG.

In 1875 in Laredo, Texas twenty-six years old Seth Strummar wins $200 in gold and a Colorado ranch. Euphoric especially with the spread, he quits outlawing to become a rancher. Feeling he owes his mentor-boss Ben Allister to tell him in person he is leaving, he rides to the outlaw leader's cabin. Instead of Ben being there, Seth finds two females held prisoner by other gang members, who inform him that Ben purchased the two women from Comancheros and plans to sell them in Mexico. They also say that he gave them the wailing younger one thirteen years old Esther, but only Ben will use the older silent woman Oriana.

Seth abducts both females knowing that will anger Ben, but feels his former leader has gone too far when he begins to trade women as a commodity. Though he initially planned to dump the females on a small town sheriff, Seth finds the town of El Topo dead. He also realizes that Ben is coming for them and him so he can't abandon the females though the idea is tempting but he plans to escort the women to Esther's Granny in Kansas. On the road Angel Madera joins them, but shows he desires Esther leading to Seth not trusting him.

BONE JUSTICE is a terrific western thriller starring an outlaw with ethics as Seth feels impelled to rescue two women from his former mentor. Seth is a fascinating character struggling to do the right thing for Esther and Oriana, but not finding it easy as he tries to deliver the vulnerable Esther to her Granny while attempting to help her mentally recover from her ordeal; Oriana with her barriers is even more difficult for him. Fans who appreciate a powerful character driven tale of the old west will want to read Elizabeth Fackler's terrific Southwest frontier thriller and seek Seth's other novels (see ROAD FROM BETRAYAL) as this reviewer plans to do.

Harriet Klausner

Bone Justice is absolutely excellent! Kudos to Elizabeth Fackler for another well-written, fascinating novel.

BOWIE IS ONE OF THE BEST FICTIONAL BIOGARPHY I'VE EVER READ. A MAGNIFICANT ACHIVEMENT OF FACT SUPPORTING FICTION TO RE-CREAT A STORY IN WORDS THAT WILL BRING TEARS TO YOUR EYES AND A LUMP TO YOUR THROAT.THE AWSOME TASK OF BIOGAPHICAL NOVELIST IS TO GATHER UP THE BONES OF LONG-DEAD PEOPLE AND BEREATH LIFE BACK INTO THEM.

The author seemed so knowledgeable on the subject of Jim Bowie. I didn't know some of the stories myself. I often wondered what went on prior to The Alamo and now I know. I would like to see the same type of Book come out about Crockett and Travis.

Eickhoff and Lewis have teamed together to compose the most complete account of a complicated, often oversimplified man. As a hero of the Alamo, James Bowie has been the victim of many myths. I believe Eickhoff and Lewis succeed at erasing the myths, yet keeping the mystery and magical qualities that seemed to surround the man, who some called "El Leon", or the lion, because of his impressive mane of red hair. Lewis published an article about Bowie last year, where he gave us a taste of what was to come in this book, Bowie. I recommend it, expecially the magical telling of the forging of the infamous knife that became Bowie's trademark.

This is a beautifully illustrated guidebook. What makes it particularly useful and informative are the outstanding photographs of butterflies in different stages of their life cycle and different color phases, together with the extremely well-written text which thoroughly describes the natural history of each variety.

This is a great book for those living in the Southeast area!! I was able to identify a butterfly (goatweed) that I couldn't find in the many other books I have. This book shows male & female butterflies, which made for easy ID. Well worth the $.

The Tvetens have written the definitive account of butterflies in eastern Texas. John's photos are incredible and show the key field makes needed to identify each species. Most accounts of each species also include a photo of the larval stage. All account include a description of the egg, larva, male and female adult and seasonal variations. I use this book all the time.

This book is amazing. It's a great reference for the everday clothes of women on the frontier. It discusses general fashions along with construction techniques and material choices. There are lots of good pictures of clothes, including some close-ups to see details of construction. The book also talks about how women treated their clothes--where they brought them from, how they re-used and re-fashioned them, how they got new materials, and such. It's particularly excellent in that it focuses largely on the group of women who aren't in many of the other books, those who weren't in a city and couldn't follow Parisian fashions and have new dresses every season. A wonderful book for anyone interested in the fashions of homesteading women.

The pictures are beautiful, the information is extensive, and it'll make you want to sew!

I have owned this book for years and use it often in my work as a historic garment researcher & seamstress. Copious primary source material in the form of store ads, photographs of original garments in the Museum's collection, and easy-to-understand, logical descriptions of the times and social conditions under which these clothes were worn. ...

This is a must have book for any person who is interested in Texana. It is very represetative of most of the regions of the State, including South, Central and Coastal Texas. Please note: Do not buy this book if you only want to read about the King Ranch.

This book provides a personal and engaging look into the lives of some of the wealthiest and most private ranches in Texas. Anyone who has an interest in the Mystique that IS Texas will love this book. This book provides a look at the "real world" of Texas ranch life--it is a history of a fading tradition of true ranching that has made Texas what it is today.

What a tragic loss to all Texans (and those who want to be) that Dian Malouf's book "Cattle Kings" is out of print. It's witty, historically correct and an obvious work from the heart. Please reprint this classic cowboy delight!