Carlson Books

a wonderful overview of Peter Cushing's acting career. contains detailed reviews/criticisms of his film work, and is lavishly illustrated with b/w & color photographs(some of which look to be relatively rare). all in all, an indispensable book for fans and a good introduction for the Cushing newcomers :)

Winner of the 2002 Robert Phillips Poetry Chapbook Prize, Complications Of The Heart is a selection of emotionally moving free-verse of experienced poet and community writers' group runner Nancy Naomi Carlson. Stream-of-consciousness style enthusiasm often marks the flowing imagery of her highly recommended work. Awaking to Vivaldi's "Four Seasons": The deer must wonder at this frosted sunrise,/salt lick iced over, each linden limb doubled/in weight, each blade of grass enclosed/in its own sheath that splinters underfoot/beneath a patchwork of Halloween leaves/gathered like souls unearthed and ambered./Her lover pulls her back under the quilt/and fingers the length of her sternum/as if burnishing a Chinese flute/recovered after nine thousand years,/made from the wing bone of an extinct bird./"Music of the spheres," he whispers and plays/the sun of middle "G," then Venus,/Mercury, the elements of fire, water, and air/sealed to the end, down to earth,/and still she burns, and she burns, and burns.

Dale Carlson captures wih ferocity the dilemmas experienced by people who have right hemisphere learning disabilities in her CONFESSIONS OF A BRAIN-IMPAIRED WRITER. She exposes the most intimate details of her life and loves...her gift with words demonstrates with stark realism how people with such social learning disabilities compensate for struggles to negotiate and manage relationships to become a wife, lover, prize-winning author. She is gifted and disabled. -- Dr. Kathleen Laundy, Psy.D., MSW, Yale School of Medicine

Despite the humorous title, this is a seriously good little cookbook of lamb recipes. (If you're comfortable with your place in the food chain, of course.) Lamb is a healthy, delicious red meat alternative to beef, but it's hard to find good recipes for it; this little spiral-bound softcover offers 175 pages of them that are tasty & easy to prepare. Included are lamb burgers, stew, sloppy joes, meatballs, ribs & kabobs, along with a short selection of salads to serve as sides.

This text provides both an excellent overview and an indepth analysis of the state of prisons in the United States. The graphics and tables are simply outstanding and are excellent teaching tools!

The Courage To Lead: Start Your Own Support Group is a complete "how to" manual for creating small groups that will prove invaluable supplements to hospital regimens, formal therapy, medical or pharmaceutical treatments for persons striving against addiction or to overcome mental illnesses. Hannah Carlson ably covers all aspects of forming, organizing, publicizing, and leading a group; how to get started with discussion subjects, study materials, speakers; shares ten characteristics of an effective group, as well as a Twelve Step and other programs; using the telephone and on-line support; and a "trouble-shooters" guide....

The term "cowboy way" has an infectious effect on those who love cowboys and everything about them. If this is truly the case, then Paul H. Carlson is infected. He is deathly ill from "cowboy fever." His book The Cowboy Way: An Exploration of History and Culture is loaded with sixteen essays all dealing with cowboy culture. Each is well written and thoroughly researched. Paul H. Carlson is a professor of history at Texas Tech University. He has written a number of articles and several books that deal with Western American culture. Two of his books are Empire Builder in the Texas Panhandle: William Henry Bush and The Plains Indians. Since Carlson is the editor and also a contributor to The Cowboy Way, there are many other authors to make mention of. Lawrence Clayton is Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Hardin-Simmons University. He has written several books, including Historic Ranches of Texas and Watkins Reynolds Matthews: Biography of a Texas Rancher. J'Nell L. Pate is a professor of history at Tarrant County College and has written many articles and four books dealing with western history, including the award-winning Livestock Legacy: The Fort Worth Stockyards, 1887-1987. Other authors that contributed include graduate students, a freelance writer, an archivist, a reference librarian, a book review editor for the Permian Historical Annual, a French teacher, and the Executive Vice President of San Antonio College, Robert E. Zeigler. (pp. 217-219) In his preface, Carlson begins by saying, "Although there is no dominant thesis, there are many themes." (p. ix) Carlson is correct in saying there are many themes throughout the book. Each essay deals with a specific aspect of cowboys and their way of life. I must disagree with his denying the existence of an overall thesis. From what I could garner from the book as a whole, it is an effort to help the public get the truth about cowboys. I might suggest that the thesis is cowboys are an important part of America's past, but much myth has been made out of them. The book is not intended to destroy that myth but to educate us about it. There is still much about the cowboys that the public does not know. One of the essays, "Today's Cowboy: Coping with a Myth" written by Lawrence Clayton, expounds on this point. There are some out there who want to destroy the cowboy myth entirely. Clayton refers to them as "demythologizers." They "describe the cowboy as only a hired hand working for low wages . . . He was just a laborer who happened to ride a horse to do his work." (pp. 201-202) Clayton goes on to describe what efforts the demythologizers are making. He concludes by saying that with all those efforts they are not making much headway. He says that the truth about cowboys has no effect on the public. People love the cowboy and enjoy the "aura of romance that elevates him to a pure-hatred knight-errant." (p. 205) Carlson's essay, "Myth and the Modern Cowboy," expounds more on the same point. The truth and the myth both exist. It is our choice to accept or not accept both. Many of the topics or themes covered in the book help to reinforce the thesis. Each is designed to educate and not to destroy the myth. They include the origins of the word "cowboy"; discussions on vaqueros, African American cowboys, and American Indian cowboys; cowboy labor strikes; clothing cowboys wore; cowboy relationships with sheepherders and Europeans; cowboy humor; the origins of the rodeo; and western movies. Each essay is well researched and documented. Their sources include interviews, newspapers, journal articles, photographs, surveys, movies, the Sears and Roebuck Catalog, and books written by other historians. Each essay is easy to read and very informative. One essay that I really enjoyed was "Black Cowboy: Daniel Webster `80 John' Wallace" written by Douglas Hales. Hales gives a brief history of Daniel Webster Wallace who was born a slave and died a rich cattleman. At a young age, just after emancipation, Wallace started work on a ranch as a "hoss stink" caring for the ranch's horses. He soon moved up the scale to become one of very few african-American trail bosses in the late 1800s. Through hard work and a little help from friends, he was able to buy some land and cattle to start his own ranch. Good management skills and a little luck made him one of the wealthiest ranchers in all of Texas. This story is important because many don't know that there were African American cowboys and that they became important to western history. Throughout the book there are photographs depicting cowboys at work and rest. They are used to depict the subject of the particular essay and some are just for show. One essay uses the photographs as a reference to help the reader better "see" the author's argument. Susan Karina Dickey went through 254 photographs to write her essay, "Work Clothes of American Cowboys: The Pictorial Record." The Cowboy Way is written very well. Credits go to Carlson for his editing to produce a magnificent work on cowboy culture. The index and "A Cowboy Bibliography," done by Freedonia Paschall (which could be considered as essay seventeen), make the book complete and very useful. The bibliography includes the best and most accredited primary and secondary sources available today. Anyone wanting to research cowboys should consult Paschall's bibliography first. It's hard to find anything wrong with the book. If I were to do anything to change it, I would change the order of some of the essays so that the book flowed better. A couple seemed out of place and became difficult to read because they didn't seem to fit. Other than that, the book is very well done. It has brought better understanding to myself and I know that it will infect many others.

I think I've read every book by Richard Carlson (DON'T SWEAT
THE SMALL STUFF and DON'T WORRY, MAKE MONEY, to
name just a few) and have long been inspired by his writings . . . so
imagine my surprise when I came across a Nightingale-Conant
program just available on audio cassette: CREATING MIRACLES
EVERY DAY.

I loved every minute; in fact, my only disappointment is that there
were only two cassettes.

As the subtitle implies, by listening, you get ideas for HOW TO
TURN ORDINARY MOMENTS INTO EXTRAORDINARY
EXPERIENCES . . . it really got me thinking about how I could
do just that--and gave me specific suggestions on what's needed
for me to view the world differently.

Among them:
1. To put yourself in a state of gratitude, ask yourself,
"Could this be the last day of my life?"

2. If the person knows you appreciate them, it brings out the
best in them.

3. Describe the average American in two words or less:
Easily bored.

4. Be sure to tell people in your family how much you love them.

5. Life is rarely exactly as we meant it to be. The sooner
we accept this, the happier we will be.

6. Life will not be easier or make us happier when things
change. Life is the way it is.

7. We are all here for a purpose.

8. We are all special and deserve to be treated that way.

9. Everything that happened in your past is just a thought,
and you can let it go.

10. Your life is not your enemy, but your thinking can
sure be.

11. It's a lot easier to change your thinking than the nature of
life.

12. Imaging yourself at your own funeral allows you to be very
reflective about what you want your life to stand for.

13. If you practice being negative, you'll be a very negative
person. Better to practice positive thinking.

14. Ask at dinner: What was the best thing that happened?
What did you see that inspired you? Did you see somebody
being nice to somebody else?

15. Mother Teresa said, "We can't do great things on this
Earth. But we can do small things with great love."

how have i missed p. m. carlson? this book is intelligent, great characters, and intricate and logical plot. not sure how i've missed this author, but i am going back for more.

In, The Day the Circus Came to Town, accomplished author, Melody Carlson captures the true spirit of a young boy who is old enough to make decisions for himself. As it is in every day life, he has to struggle between following his heart and mind or being swayed by the influence of his "bully" friend. Billy takes the council of his friend and tries to convince himself that the circus is really for sissies.

After his family leaves for the circus, Billy walks around town and finds that everyone has gone too. Having regretted turning down two tickets in one day, he finds himself outside the circus tent wishing he was also inside with the others. He almost misses seeing his very first circus, just because he makes a bad decision. This is a great story for teaching a life-lesson.

Ned Butterfield, artist, does an excellent job on the illustrations. He has a unique ability to capture the mood and atmosphere of those early circus days in his drawings. The book is beautifully done.