Missouri Books

Natural and/or man-made catastrophes and trauma occur every single day all over the world. Children and Disasters: A Practical Guide to Healing and Recovery, edited by: Wendy N. Zubenko and Joseph A Capozzoli, provides readers practical examples and ideas based on theoretical principles about what to do to help children, adolescents, and adults cope with traumatic events in a healthy manner and normalize their experiences. The book is a compilation of various professionals and disaster mental health (DMH) experts providing specific and useful material that can be utilized not only by all those involved with children such as parents, teachers, administrators, but moreover for psychologists, counselors, and relief workers aiding children immediately after a traumatic event. Many of the authors draw from personal experience in dealing with children and adolescents that have encountered various sorts of loss, grief, and/or bereavement and each chapter provides readers detailed developmentally-appropriate intervention techniques to help youngsters handle and survive the trauma

Willis Barnstone is well known and respected as a translator and editor of poets from many different languages and traditions; he is also a good literary analyst and compiler of texts around themes interesting and important to scholars and general readers alike. What is sometimes missed is that Barnstone is a poet in his own right, and this book serves to highlight that.

A 'breakthrough' book from the University of Missouri, this collection of Barnstone's poetry derives from experiences he had of travels to China not long after the travel difficulties were lifted. Among Barnstone's many works is a translation of the poetry of Mao Tse-tung; Barnstone's travels to China left him with his own remarkable experiences to write about, also.

These are poems unique and sublime, influenced by the many language traditions Barnstone has studied and worked with -- one gets the hint here and there of Spanish and ancient Indo-European influences as well as the Chinese in these pieces of reflection and insight. Barnstone develops his experiences of places (the Cave of the Peking Man, a mountain in Kinkiang, etc.), his relationships with people (at the cinema with Comrade Wu, with schoolchildren, etc.), and even the simple, everyday experiences (eating alone, being in the hotel room) -- nothing escapes Barnstone's poetic eye and pen.

The style Barnstone adopts for many of the poems here is clearly inspired by the linguistic characteristics of the Chinese language, which weaves pictographic elements into word characters, sometimes portrayed in block prints and sometimes in flowing, artistic strokes. One can say the same for Barnstone's poetry -- block-like work for poems such as 'Mao at the Long Wall, 1935' and 'Shoes with Comrade Chu', and more free-flowing senses in poems like 'Music in Canton' and 'Hotel Room'.

Barnstone includes pieces of poetry by other Chinese poets (largely ancient poets such as Wang Wei, Li Po, Chia Tao of the eighth and ninth centuries), but also more modern poets and prose writers to give flavour and sense of place.

There are few pages, but a wealth of words is contained herein.

As the sister book of Professor Ling's 2004 book, Chinese St Louis - From Enclave to Cultural Community, this one is the family album of Chinese-American residents with hundred of pictures in six chapters, each with a page orientation after the introduction. She did a good job in researching the first Chinese settler and Hop Alley in Downtown St Louis till 1966 when Busch Stadium replaced this landscape with the progressive development of laundry and restaurant to highly educated professionals integrated into the main stream society in a cultural community.

Dr. Ling personalizes the face and voice to the Chinese St Louis who may not be able to do so especially in the early years of bias and discrimination. This book is a respectful and grateful acknowledgment of this legacy of courage, struggle and success in a meaningful 150 years commemoration of the pioneer Alla Lee, the first Chinese in St Louis and subsequent Chinese American settlers. This is a welcome invitation to the city - Meet me in Chinese St Louis.

I remember how avidly (at age 15)I followed by radio the excitement which was the 1944 Democratic Convention. This little book does an excellent job of trying to tell what happened behind the scenes, and reads like a novel--where one must continually remind oneself that it IS going to come out all right, that Truman will be nominated, that he will go on to be an outstanding President, and that some things do work out for the best. An entralling and fascinating book, it brought back to me all the excitement which permeated Chicago and the people who were following what went on there in those momentous July days in 1944.

My Aunt was born and raised in Illasco Missouri where the book takes place. Her Father worked for the cement company in the book. I gave it to her for mothers day it brought tears to her eyes as well as many happy memories.

This book of short stories about Harlem in the 1920's proved to be quite satisfying. His characters seemed real, his stories were interesting, and his use of the English language (both slang and proper) was excellent. His plots were different as the stories and sometimes the good guys won and sometimes they didn't as in real life. There were a few characters I would have liked to have set down and talked to, like the Grandma who stopped a fight between her grandsons by pitching her Bible through the window. It's too bad Fisher died young, I imagine he had many more stories to tell.

I'm a huge fan of Missouri history and Civil War history and love this book. I haven't completely finished reading it yet...but it seems well researched and detailed. A must have for the Missouri history or Civil War in Missouri researcher.

This book is a coffee table-sized paperback. Printing and binding are good quality.

The design of the book is such that it can be used as an on-site tour guide to Civil War St. Louis. Current directions, locations, and street names are given along with War era descriptions of the sites. Significant places are described--what existed then as well as what is on the site now. Also the burial locations of important people from both sides are given with biographical information about them.

Now, if you're not planning a trip to St. Louis, it's still good reading. I enjoyed the narrative style and found much useful information. It also helped put in geographical perspective places I'd been reading about. Lots of good photos and maps. It's a well-done book. Indexed and footnoted.

I accidentally came across this book at a gay studies workshop a few years ago. I had never heard of the author, and have yet to encounter anyone else who has read the book. It is an autobiography ... the author grew up in Missouri in the late 1800s and writes of his coming of age as a gay man in a time and place where such a thing was literally unknown and even unimaginable. The writing is clear and direct. The story is simple and touching. I very much recommend this little book to anyone who is interested in learning more about our history as a people. It is not a book about neurosis or alienation. It is the life and words of a man who I would very much like to have known.

Jean Marcy is in fact a mystery writing duo of Jean Hutchison and Marcy Jacobs. Long time partners, they reside just across the Mississippi river from St. Louis, where Marcy works at a shelter for battered women. Jean is a retired teacher.

Private Investigator Meg Darcy is hired by Diane Mann to find out who her daughter, Jessica's, mother is. Diane is married to a retired cop, who follows an all too familiar pattern of abuse. She wants to leave, but is afraid she'll lose custody of her beloved daughter. Meg quickly learns that a prominent family, Heitner, is now Doug Mann's employer. Could there be a connection? Meg starts digging into the past to discover that there was an unsolved murder around the time the Manns would have gained custody of Jessica. Booth Heitner was on the scene, but was he involved? No one wants to give out any information:

"Colleen had her own thought. 'How did Booth take Teresa's death?' Twyla snuffed out her cigarette with extra vigor. 'Can't tell you. He didn't show up for the funeral. I haven't seen him since. He just dropped off the radar screen.' She gave a wry smile. 'Sometimes I see his name in the papers.'"

The fourth in a series of Meg Darcy mysteries, A Cold Case of Murder presents the reader with delightfully developed characters caught in an interesting pulp situation. Meg Darcy and police detective Sarah Lindstrom have a romantic relationship that is heavy, but undeclared; Sarah is herself fighting off the homophobia of her police department; and crooked cops keep littering the landscape. Meg is determined to solve Jessica's birth mother's murder, even if she has to put life and limb on the line, which she repeatedly manages. Sara Lindstrom is still reeling from the death of her former partner; a tragedy for which she blames herself and her profession.

The team of Meg Darcy conjure up a denouement Nevada Barr and V.I. Warschawski would be proud of, making use of old tunnels which run under and around the old Heitner Brewery. A Cold Care of Murder is an excellent follow-up to the first three novels in the series. Great read!

Shelley Glodowski