Texas Books

The book told the story of the Texas Rangers through the eyes of a young Ranger, George Durham. The story begins with George becoming one of "Capt. McNelly's" Rangers. The rangers are sent out to the battle of Palo Alto to the Taylor-Sutton fued and various other historical events. It ends with George marrying Caroline Chambers of the famed King Ranch. The book is a must for Texas history buffs.

I first read this book when I was in 5th grade. I wanted to know more about my grandfather at that time as he died way before I was born. It was so interesting that I have reread it several times since. My grandfather led a colorful life and this book tells about the time he was a Texas Ranger with Leander McNelly. He wasn't with him for very long, but the memories stayed with him until the end. It starts when he is a teenager straight from Georgia after the civil war, finding Capt. McNelly (who, by this time is very ill and dying of tuberculosis) becoming a Texas Ranger and how he meets my grandmother, Caroline Chamberlain, who was Mr. & Mrs. King's niece and whom he loved. It tells of how wild and dangerous it was along the Nueces Strip (a line from Corpus Christi to the border)back then and about the different characters he met along the way such as King Fisher, John Wesley Hardin, Juan Nepomuncino Cortinas, the Taylors and Suttons... What it doesn't tell the reader is that they had 10 children and raised them all on the El Sauz division of the King Ranch...My family...and I am proud of them.

Great book on the Texas Rangers. The book is easy reading and tells the story of McNelly's rangers throught the eyes of a Young Ranger named Ed Durhm. Would make a good movie.

What a delightful book! A guide for Texas Teasippers or just a pleasant read - the author has a great sense of humor. This book will live in my car from now on.

A MUST FOR TEA LOVERS What a charming, humorous guide to the tearooms in Texas! Lori Torrance has done such a wonderful job, even my husband is ready to search out some of these places!! It's a miracle! ha If you're a tea lover and enjoy gathering yourself in quiet, little out of the way places, you've got to get this book. And it's the perfect gift for tea loving friends.

And, if you love Texas like I do, you would also enjoy checking out Last of the Old Time Texans, Texas Bad Girls: Harlots, Hussies, & Horsethieves, or a Browser's Book to Texas History....

This book is great! It is a guide to all the tearooms in Texas! It has pictures, menus, famous quotes, histories of the town the tearoom is in, as well as the history of the tearoom! It even has various fillers, like "How to Read Tea Leaves and What the Symbols Mean", "How to Make a Proper British Cup of Tea", etc. This is so worth the money. I know the author and she has spent well over a year, with her mother, traveling to all these tearooms. They took pictures (inside and out) and the pictures look fantastic. It is not a critique, but a handy guide you can take with you. Why settle for fast food, when you can have an ice cold glass (or even cup of hot) Almond tea , choices of homemade sandwiches, soups and outrageous desserts in a quiet victorian decorated room. In one tearoom, you can even hear singing English Countryside birds. Personally, I have always been a coffee drinker, but now, I am even ready to go drink tea!! (cold or hot). Enjoy the book, I sure do..

Technophobia! is a funny and fascinating thematic history of science fiction. In addition to Dinello's humorous take on a sometimes sobering subject, what really sets this book apart is the unique structure that pits science's pervasive technoutopian viewpoint against science fiction's technophobic response. Instead of treating sci-fi as pop culture pulp, Dinello places it within the context of recent scientific advances, providing insightful, entertaining explanations of research into posthuman technology, artificial intelligence, robotics, bionics, biotechnology, nanotechnology and more. I learned about science and science fiction. And Technophobia! brings the debate up-to-the-minute by dealing with technology and the Iraq War, the Transhumanist movement, electronic surveillance, mind control, and viruses--both electronic and biological. This thought-provoking book will make you take a closer look at how technology is shaping, even controlling, not just the lives of sci-fi characters but every one of us as well.

There are many reasons to read this book. I'd like to start one of the best. I'm currently engaged in writing something of my own dealing with robots, cyborgs, androids, and other kinds of artificial people in popular culture. I'm therefore reading my way through many of the standard books in the subject area. I've been crawling through bibliography after bibliography, compiling long lists of nonfiction books and novels to read and movies and television series to view. Daniel Dinello's overall mastery of the literature at large is unrivaled. Reading this book is, on one level, akin to reading a very good annotated bibliography. By the end of it, you will be aware of all the major figures on both sides of debates between technophiles and technophobe.

Dinello proudly aligns himself with the technophobes and marshals a host of good reasons for his position. While many assume a blithe optimism like that found in the novels of Isaac Asimov, that all technological development will aid humanity and present few dangers to us, Dinello joins the majority of SF writers and filmmakers who are far less sanguine about the future role of technology in our lives. Dinello find it more likely that robots like those in the Terminator films could arise than the Asimovian prime directive robots found in FORBIDDEN PLANET and LOST IN SPACE. He finds the notion of nonlethal robots to be naive, since a staggering amount of research in the field receives funding from DARPA (The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a branch of the Department of Defense). The vast majority of cutting edge technological research is being done with an eye to its military applications. Cute, nonlethal robots would have little role to play for the military.

Although there has been little public outcry about the dangers of much of the technology that is being developed with minimal oversight, there has been considerable probing of the dangers of unregulated, uncontrolled technological development by a long string of works of SF. In fact, apart from exceptions like Asimov and the unexamined optimism of the shows making up the STAR TREK franchise, most films, books, and TV series have made much of the dangers inherent in these technologies.

I can't recommend this book strongly enough. By the end any reader will have a firm grasp of the primary books and movies raising the most pertinent questions about the wisdom and desirability of promoting ungoverned technological expansion. One will also have encountered any number of technophile gurus who believe that technological heaven is only a few years away. These are people who fantasize about taking one's brain and slicing it away one little section as a time and then magically downloading its data into a computer (as if such an interface will be completely unproblematic). One would then boot up one's personality and enjoy a virtual though bodiless eternity, a bit like becoming permanently part of a SIMS game. In one of the books Dinello cites, a character comments on a similar procedure, calling it what it is: dying.

The one weakness of the book is that Dinello doesn't seem to know television as well as movies and books. It was published in 2005, but the manuscript was probably finished before the debut of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA in 2003. But other shows were not mentioned despite being remarkably relevant. For instance, in the chapter on the possible manipulation of DNA to enhance soldiers I kept waiting for some mention of DARK ANGEL, which ran from 2000-2002. Many of the more extreme fantasies of scientists (e.g., soldiers with tougher skin or with gills) were artistically in that series. And the main character, Max (Jessica Alba) was herself, as she told some friends, "a genetically enhanced killing machine." Why Dinello failed to bring up the most prominent representation of genetically enhanced soldiers was odd. My only guess is that at a certain point he cut off his research to write.

Likewise, in the chapter on nanotechnology I kept anticipating some mention of the replicators in STARGATE SG-1, easily the most prominent depiction of nanotechnology gone wrong either on TV on in film. The only defense I can imagine is that it is much harder to catch up on TV series than it is to read novels or watch individual movies. As I've learned in my own project, committing yourself to watching yet another TV series can involve remarkable amounts of time. Still, these were two instances where TV would have provided him with some of his best examples.

This criticism aside, I cannot recommend this book strongly enough. This is as fine a survey of the wide range of responses that imaginative SF is making to the emerging technologies that are redefining our world. You'll not only love reading this; you'll find yourself constantly writing down the names of other books or movies that you want to try out next.

Dinello's sojourn into all realms of science fiction is insightful and quite comical. I highly recommend this book for all fans of sci-fi and it's excellent references, classic (Blade Runner) and obscure (Octavia Butler), would make an excellent textbook. Technology is truely a blessing and a curse; no other book lays this out more clearly.

An excellent well written book ! Being a descendent of one of the early pioneers of South Texas, this book really open up my eyes on how our early ancestors used the natural resources around them to built their homes and where proud of them. It also describes how the unity in the family helped them cope with the struggles of goverment changes. This book takes you back in time as if you where there to see it. This is a book everyone who is interested in early South Texas History must read. My hats off to Andres Tijerina.

Tijerina states that, "Tejanos founded the ranching frontier on their land grants... were the founders of the State of Texas". I agree that only Tejanos have lived and fought under six flags and that Tejanos are here to stay. Tejano Empire is a bold book, well documented, and difficult to lay aside once opened by a reader. Stories handed down for generations are finally put into print. Beasley's sketches depict tejano stories that will live forever. Bravo - Andres Tijerina and thank you.

Being a descendant of a pioneer ranch family in Duval County since the 1860's, Rancho San Buenaventura; after reading Tejano Empire it brings out the spirit of my greatgrandfather's and so many other rancheros of that era's way of life. I think this book will bring back self confidence to the many families in South Texas with ranching roots. With this book Tijerina helps fill the void of the much neglected history of the ranchos in South Texas from a Tejano point of view. The beautiful illustrations by Ricardo M. Beasley and Servando Hinojosa are also an additional plus. A definite book to add to anyones collection if you're into Texas history.

Clay Reynolds struck a home run with this wonderfully enlightening book about turning a hopeless situation about a 1850's guy who's profession is a Tent maker that decides to go west and gets himself into trouble, fame and fortune and back.
I've ordered over 10 of them and given them to friends.....
Their opinion of the book is the same as ours....Wonderful.

Jim

I have been reading Clays Reynolds' works since Franklins Crossing, and find each one to be even more enjoyable than the previous. I didn't just read The Tentmaker, I devoured it. The characters are well rounded, and truly breathe with a life of their own on the pages. I found myself identifying with Gil Hooley as if I had known him all my life. I could clearly see him throwing up his hands and yelling, "WHAT?!" with every encounter he had with Margot Phillips, the red-haired Madam. And as for Margot, she is without doubt the most vexing, stubborn, irritating, alluring woman I have seen in some time. I found myself laughing out loud each time she would browbeat Hooley into doing what she wanted, and then berate him for doing it with the next breath. Hooley is a man, who through the accident of fate, ends up becoming everything he has never really wanted to be. And as a result of this, is placed in the very uncomfortable position of having to defend what he never really wanted in the first place. And through his actions, he becomes a hero, albeit, a reluctant hero. This is a well written, and extremely engaging book. Whether or not you are a fan of Western Fiction, and if you never read another book of this genre, read this book. You won't regret it.

This is one of best tales I've come across in years. The hapless Gil Hooley is constantly trying to find a quiet place to read and smoke his pipe, yet the camp he established quickly becomes a settlement, and is determined to grow into a town. The poor guy, everything he says comes out wrong, so he is forced into situations that could have been avoided. Clay Reynolds has created a winner, not to be missed.

It's like a museum in a book! All of the Eyewitness books are that way. I'd recommend any of them. Texas is a great addition to that collection. Works great for homeschooling too.

The latest title in the outstanding DK Publishing "Eyewitness Books" series, Texas is a fun and fact-filled book for young readers about the great American state of Texas. From Texas geography and climate, to its sometimes violent history, to what life as a cowboy was really like, and a great deal more, Texas combines extensive research, amiable narration, and a wealth of outstanding color photographs to teach young readers ages 8 and older all about the proud heritage the Lone Star State.

A great book for advanced second graders and above. The facts are succint and interesting, which makes it perfect for the teacher to read before talking about the Lone Star State. The illustrations and the facts are both well done. Numerous discussions can be started from this well written book. Facts are on almost any aspect of the state including, the cities, geography, animals, plants, populations, type of government, the Alamo, etc.

When I first read this book, I had never heard of this author, so I didn't know what to expect. I love to read historical Christian romances and have probably read hundreds of them, but I can honestly say that this one is my all-time favorite. I have reread it about 10 times and it still has me laughing out loud each time I read it. The characters are unique and hilarious as they interact with each other, revealing their own human faults and imperfections, but at the same time using them to change their lives for the better.

All four novels in this anthology are connected, and each one has its own merit! Rachel Branigan cannot convince the town that she was attacked and she and her child are labeled because of it. This doesn't deter Rev. Caleb Stone who believes her and loves her and her baby girl. Lawman Lee Cutler keeps wondering why Patience Primrose keeps batting her eyelashes at him - until he discovers she's been reading Emma Hadley's book on how to catch a man! Circumstances, however, bring out the true Patience and everyone is surprised at this happy ending! Susannah Butler is the schoolteacher and the way is not easy for her and Bobby Joe Aaron as family secrets come to the surface and their love has to grow almost in spite of circumstances. Billy Ray Aaron, Bobby Joe's brother, catches a pickpocket who turns out to be a 19-year-old blonde attraction to him! He almost forfeits his job as Sheriff to save her, and all characters come into play in this final story of the four. Altogether, these complete novels are well written and the men and women are very real and three-dimensional - you see them as they really are and they react in wonderfully human ways. I recommend this book highly and I know you won't be sorry to enjoy this inspirational romance anthology. It's even difficult for me to enjoy regular library books now that I've discovered Barbour anthologies like this! I hope you enjoy TEXAS BELLES as much as I have!

If you have never read a book in this series, than you are in for a real treat. There are four historical christian romances in this one book. Each one is just shy of 100 pages. In addition, all four stories are connected in location and character. So the charters you meet in the first story come back in all of the others.

Now for a recap of each story:
1. A girl is judged by the entire town and charged guilty of commiting a sin of which she is innocent. A new astor comes to town and falls in love with her. But she is afraid her past will prevent them having a future. Do they have to move to a new town? Will she ever be cleared of her crime?

2. The sheriff is looking for a bride, little does he know one lady has already named him asa her future husband, but as luck would have it, she is the lsat woman on the earth he would ever want to marry. But all of sudden he can't seem to get her out of his mind. Does the sheriff marry this girl? Does she give up on him and marry someone else?

3. Susannah has a secret, well afew, to be perfectly honest. Her dad sent her to a twon to complete a muission, she never intended to complete. Now her time is almost up and the man that she loves just asked her to marry him in a marriage of convience. Does Susannah mary him eventhough he doesn't return her love? Does her dad ruin her happiness by taking her away from her love?

4. An outlaw has been caught by the town sheriff. She should go to jail but the judge sentences her a three month period of reform where she will learn to be a Christian, and a lady. However, during this time she falls in love, guess with who. . . the sherrif who arrested her. Will they fight thwie love forever? Or will this end happily ever after?

When president George W. Bush July 5th and 6th 2005 visited Denmark he brought with him a present to the Danish prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen. It was "The Texas Cowboys".

This is a book of superlative photography, capturing the essence of the Texas cowboy and his life--the dirt, the work, the gear, the animals, the life. Stoecklein has a love for the West that dances joyously through his work.

This is Mr. Stoecklein's finest work to date! Through his camera lens were able to get a close up view of the life of a Texas Cowboy and his natural surrondings. What is most interesting about this photo essay is that it shows the diversity of Texas and how the cowboys have adapted to the land. One of my best friends is a Cowboy from Pampa, Texas and he went nuts for this book. Full of beautiful photography and illustrations, and imformative text, this is a must for anybody who shares a passion for the American West and what it stands for.

I live in Austin, TX and wanted to find out where I could take my dogs and let them really run. Well, not only did this guidebook tell me what areas allow leash-free dogs (and it turns out the Austin area has a lot more than I ever knew!), but it gave great anecdotal descriptions of the various trails, facilities, etc. I've taken the pups on four walks so far (I've had the book a month) based on recommendations in this book and the descriptions were dead on accurate.

Dogs, Larry D. Hodge has concluded, are like American Express Cards. "Some people won't leave home without them," says the Mason free-lance writer. That's the idea behind Hodge's new book, "The Texas Dog Lover's Companion" (Foghorn Press, $20.95). Hodge has "the inside scoop on where to take your dog" in the Lone Star State. It's the seventh "Dog Lover's Companion" volume from the California publisher. Hodge, who writes about travel and the outdoors for a number of Texas publications, including the San Antonio Express-News, says a guide for dog lovers didn't initially set his tail to wagging. He writes in the book's introduction: "Traveling dogs are a common sight in Texas ... What's the big deal? In Texas we just tell the dog to get in the back of the truck with the kids." Editors at Foghorn Press pressed him. They wanted listings of Rover-friendly restaurants, festivals, hotels and motels. They wanted to know where pet owners can walk a dog without a leash. Hodge approaches the subject matter with humor and humility. To conduct research, Hodge traveled mostly with Sport, a Rhodesian Ridgeback/handsome stranger mix, and sometimes with Samantha, an Australian blue heeler mix. The author, who confesses to sneaking both dogs into a Corpus Christi motel that doesn't allow pets ("We spent the entire time keeping them quiet"), was "surprised at how many motels openly welcome dogs." At more than 600 pages, "The Texas Dog Lover's Companion" is well-researched. You can bet Hodge did his homework, ranking park areas by a system of paws - four paws being the, er, cat's meow. The lowest rating is a fire hydrant, or as Hodge writes, "That means the park is just worth a squat." Two parks in San Antonio got 31/2 paws - Martin Luther King Park and Southside Lions Park. The latter "is as good as it gets for a dog in Texas," Hodge says. Another South Texas favorite is Dwight D. Eisenhower Park. "It has great walking trails and great views of the San Antonio skyline," Hodge says. The biggest surprise in researching the book was "how many closet dog people are out there who keep a dog at their place of business all day ... everything from book stores to dress shops to restaurants to motels. "The minute I said something about doing a guide book for dogs they would turn and get real friendly," Hodge says. In all, the book lists more than 400 places to chow down, hundreds of places to stay the night and nearly 500 parks, beaches, forests and wildlife areas, as well as doggy do's and don'ts, safety tips, rules of dining etiquette and hints on avoiding pooper- scooper faux "paws." Plus, "The Texas Dog Lover's Companion" is illustrated with delightful cartoons by Phil Frank.

The carpet in the back of my sport utility vehicle is still full of coarse, reddish hair, and I'm in no hurry to clean it out. That's where Rosie, our six-year-old Golden Retriever, used to ride. We took her to parks and beaches when we could, which in retrospect was not anywhere near often enough. Rosie was part of our family. She was our first "child" and later, Deputy Mom and Big Sister to our daughter Hallie. Like all good dogs, for her the term "unconditional love" was redundant. Last summer, as Hallie played in our front yard, someone driving a blue pickup truck ran over Rosie when she ran out in the street. The person who did it--Hallie says it was a man (only in the sense of his gender)--kept driving. Rosie was left writhing on the pavement with a broken back. Using a blanket, Linda and I got her into my truck and rushed her to an emergency veterinary clinic. After looking at an X-ray, the vet said there was nothing we could do for her but put her down. So, with the wisdom that only sad hindsight brings, if you have a beloved family pet, do things with it as frequently as you can, while you can. And buy a copy of a book funny enough to dry the tears from my eyes when I think about Rosie and the kind of person who would hit a 75-pound dog and not stop, while a little girl watched: "The Texas Dog Lover's Companion" by Larry D. Hodge (Foghorn Press, 656 pages, $20.95). The book is the first-ever Texas travel guide for people with dogs. It lists places where dogs are welcome, rating them on a scale of a fireplug (suitable only for "dewatering" your dog) to one to four paws, depending on the dog-friendliness factor. A good book offers more than its title suggests, and "The Texas Dog Lover's Companion" is a good book. What makes it good is that Hodge has personalized it, crafting it as something of a Texas-only version of "Travels with Charlie." Unlike John Steinbeck, whose faithful canine companion was Charlie, Hodge traveled with two dogs, Sport and Samantha.

Hodge could have written a simple, to-the-point guidebook, but his Steinbeck-like opus is full of observation and insight into Texas as well as the human and canine condition. Writing about a park in Houston, for instance, he mentions that he went to a nearby branch library to re-read a passage from the classic novel, "Old Yeller," by the late Mason writer Fred Gipson. Hodge and his two dogs put 25,000 miles on his sport utility vehicle (Hodge says his Sport appreciates the fact that Detroit bestowed her name on a whole vehicular genre) in researching "The Texas Dog Lover's Companion." Following a 20-page, philosophy-filled introductory overview on traveling with dogs (and in which Sport and Samantha are brought on stage), Hodge covers the state region by region. He and his co-researchers sniffed their way across the state, checking parks, places to eat and sleep and even places where you can take your pet shopping. Hodge found most of Texas pretty accommodating when it comes to dogs, but it's clear that he didn't mind leaving Lubbock in his rearview mirror. "Unfortunately, for dogs there are few positives," Hodge writes of Lubbock. "Dogs must be leashed everywhere, and we could find few places that actually welcomed them. For dogs, anyway, Lubbock seems destined to remain a stop on the way to someplace better." One "someplace better," he wrote, is Amarillo. Hodge likes its climate and friendliness -- to people and their pooches. Hodge's guidebook is a sometimes funny and always entertaining and useful travel reference even if you aren't traveling with Rover. If a hotel, eating place or park won't accept dogs, who would want to go there anyway? As Hodge writes, "Texas is going to the dogs. And it's about time." Hodge's book is a delightful salute to Texas and to dogs, from Old Yeller to Sport, Samantha and -- in sentiment, to Rosie. "It's the land that brings out what's inside us," Hodge quotes one savvy Big Bend resident as saying about her corner of Texas. "There's a beauty and clarity I believe you find only in open spaces." And, Hodge adds, "in the eyes of a dog."

This book is full of great informaton for the Texas History buff. Not only information about the flags but what percipitated the need for the flag.

I bought this book for my Dad for Christmas and he loved it! He is a big TX History guy and this book was perfect for him.

If you like flags, history and Texas this is the book for you. Extremely well written, researched and illustrated. The computer graphics are excellant, the large flag pictures are some of the best that I have seen. A must have for any Texan or flag lover.