Johnston Books

For those following the 'Hawk's Way ' Series by Joan Johnston, this is # 5 in the line up, and it is the first one that branches out to family members other then the core Whitelaw siblings. It also should not be confused with another romance by the same title by Lois Faye Dyer. If you have been following the series, you may remember briefly meeting Carter Prescott, as Faron Whitelaw's half brother in 3rd in the series, "The Cowboy and the Princess". Ms Johnston, gives enough background and interaction with the Whitelaw's, so that this book stand on it's own, however if you would like to start the series from the beginning, the 1st in the series is "Honey and the Hired Hand", followed by "The Rancher and the Runaway Bride", "Cowboy and the Princess", and "The Wrangler and the Rich Girl".

Joan Johnston is amazing as she always matches up two wonderful characters, that seem made for each other, while still keeping the plot interesting and fresh. In this one Desiree Parrish and her little daughter Nicole are in danger. Carter Prescott is looking for a place to set down roots and call his own.Desiree owns a ranch and needs a husband for protection. She carries the scars, physically and mentally of an abusive relationship and has no hopes for a future relationship. Offering Carter a place to call his own,in desperation she proposes to him, a man she met once in her childhood and hardly knows. So hardly knowing each other, but each with their own reasons, and each with the scars and secrets of the past,they marry. Desiree who never thought she could let another man touch her, or make a man happy in the bedroom discovers new feelings with this man who treats her so tenderly. Carter too, starts to fall for Desiree, can hardly keep from spending every waking minute with her, and also learns to care for Nicole as well. These two strangers learn about each other's past and the marriage becomes one much more than one of convenience.There's danger brewing though, in the form of Desiree's maniac of an ex-husband.

There is much to overcome and Johnston keeps the reader turning the pages, as this multi-faceted story unfolds at a great pace in this romantic and suspenseful novella. A very good entry and something a little different from the rest in the Hawk's Way series. Next up is "The Unforgiving Bride", which looks like it might be the start of the next generation of Whitelaw kids' stories.

There are many more of the Hawk's Way series stories to come, and sometimes they may be purchased in 3-in-1 or sometimes 2-in-1 books. This one, "The Cowboy Takes a Wife", may also be purchased in the 3 novella book - "Hawk's Way Rouges" which also includes the 1st in the series(Honey), and 9th "The Temporary Groom". Book #'s 2, 3 and 4(mentioned above), make up the "Hawk's Way Bachelors" 3 in 1 book.

These romantic adventures are great reads to take you away to someplace else for just a little while. The romances are sweet and more often then not, pretty steamy, but always have some other storyline to get caught up in as well.

Enjoy the read......Laurie

In this Hawk's Way book the Whitelaws branch out. This is the story of Faron Whitelaw's step brother Carter. We were introduced to Carter in 'The Wrangler and the Rich Girl' when he was interested in purchasing his fathers estate. This story picks up on the exact night that he came to town. Desiree was also first intorduced in the previous book when she came to Faron and Belindas party, she was the young woman that had a scar on her face.

Desiree asks Carter to be her husband and in return she will sign over half of her estate. Carter is looking for somewhere to put down roots and since he can not have his fathers estate he thinks Desiree's offer sounds good. Desiree and Carter get married a week later. Carter does not consider that he will now have to be a father to Desiree's daughter Nicky. Carter has a hard time with the little girl because of his own secret past. Carter also wants to see if Desiree can love him for who he is and does not tell her that he is rich. Desiree also has secrets of her own. She has not told Carter about the abusive ex husband that gave her the scars on her face and body, or that he is getting out of prison and that is why she wanted to get married. Desiree figures that her ex will leave her alone if Carter is there, but she turns out to be really wrong. Despite there pasts they have to try to decide if they want to open there hearts to each other. They also have to deal with all of the secrets between them. This is a great edition to the Hawk's Way series.

"The Crystal Cat" by Velda Johnston is the first book I have read by her, and I am beginning to read her book, "The Silver Dolphin." This book had a wonderfully written plot and beautiful descriptions that your imagination can translate into many ways. The book is about a woman named Linda who marries a young man named Guy and they move back to her hometown where her mother was found drowned in a pool when Linda was six. Linda returns with Guy to Wessex and experiences many adventures that concern their marriage and personal lives. Linda runs into the town's so called "mayor" who is Peggy Crofton. Soon Linda learns some disturbing things from her past and her family history. Guy, at first, doesn't believe her, but the conclusion to the book it heart-stopping, heart-pounding reading. Way to go Velda!!

I have read several of Velda Johnston's romantic suspense books and have found them quite entertaining. The Crystal Cat was one of my favorites. An intriguing mystery with good characters and lots of suspense. Good escape fiction.

The complete Plainsmen Series by the late Terry C. Johnston, is an outstanding saga of the so called Indian Wars on the Great Plains (southern Oregon in this book). Mr. Johnston obviously did meticulous research for all his books. He presented the stories of these wars in an even handed manner. I absolutely enjoyed reading the series. It is ashamed Mr. Johnston passed away at such a young age. He was a very talented writer.

This is the first (and not last) book I've read by Johnston, and it was very good. At times it was hard to keep reading it, at times it was hard to put down. I'm very glad I read this, and I think anyone else interested in this time period should definetly pick this up. And of course read it.

You can find both the Disquisition and the Discourse @ http://www.constitution.org/jcc/jcc.htm.
Then read these impressive bodies of words and decide for yourself.
Personally, I wish that all of this could be neatly summed up in 10,000 words or less - was it really necessary for Daniel to exhaust over 100,000 lexes to say what he wanted to say?

John C. Calhoun, born in 1782, was an original "War Hawk" at the outbreak of the War of 1812, Senator from South Carolina, Vice President of the United States; he is also one of the more interesting political thinkers in American history.

John C. Calhoun's key concern in this volume was the threat of an oppressive national government. He argued: "But government, although intended to protect and preserve society, has itself a strong tendency to disorder and abuse of its powers, as all experience and almost every page of history testify." Calhoun claims that societies are made up of numerous groupings, each with its own interest. The end result? There is ". . .nothing more easy than to pervert its powers into instruments to aggrandize and enrich one or more interests by oppressing and impoverishing the others. . ." Consequently, some instrumentality must be developed ". . .to prevent any one interest or combination of interests from using the powers of government to aggrandize itself at the expense of others." One of the intereests he wished to protect was, of course, slavery. He creates an interesting argument for one of the worst causes possible.

Use of the "numerical majority" to make decisions essentially can suppress minorities. He believed that the idea of the concurrent majority would reduce the possibility of tyranny. In Calhoun's own words, the essence of the concurrent majority is: "The necessary consequence of taking the sense of the community as the concurrent majority is. . .to give each interest or portion of the community a negative on the others. It is this mutual negative among its various conflicting interests which invests each with the power of protecting itself, and places the rights and safety of each where only they can be securely placed, under its own guardianship."

Critics, of course, would contend that the concurrent majority would make it difficult to take any significant action. Calhoun felt that this plan would actually foster unity. In a key passage, Calhoun said: "The concurrent majority. . .tends to unite the most opposite and conflicting interests and to blend the whole in one common attachment to the country. By giving to each interest, or portion, the power of self-protection, all strife and struggle between them for ascendancy is prevented, and thereby not only every feeling calculated to weaken the attachment to the whole is suppressed, but the individual and the social feelings are made to unite in one common devotion to country. Each sees and feels that it can best promote its own prosperity by conciliating the good will and promoting the prosperity of the others."

Calhoun's relevance for constitutional principles in the United States? Obviously, his work directly addresses the Constitution's concept of federalism. Calhoun's vision was far different from that enunciated by the Supreme Court over time. Whereas the Supreme Court emphasized the Supremacy Clause, Calhoun rejected that concept as violating his understanding of the Constitution and its origins. His conclusion was that the United States was a confederation. This work is one of the more creative bits of American political thought. While one can decry Calhoun for his support of slavery, one has to recognize the intriguing arguments that he makes in this slender volume.

A consummate professional in his field, as well as a diligent and thorough deliberator on political issues, Johnston steps outside of the conventional and offers a view of Rousseau unparalleled by that of his contemporaries. Standard notions of Rousseau are illuminated with unique jewels of obscure ironies and tragedies in Rousseau's work. Hence, Johnston's keen observation of hidden ideological meaning in Rousseau is an imperative addition to any political literary collection. This book is recommended as required reading for both scholars and avid followers of theory who wish to augment political discourse with the decorative nature of Johnston's perspective. A must-read for political science students, and a necessity for those academicians possessing a dire need for flair in their lecture discussions. A brilliant achievement!

A consummate professional in his field, as well as a diligent and thorough deliberator on political issues, Johnston steps outside of the conventional and offers a view of Rousseau unparalleled by that of his contemporaries. Standard notions of Rousseau are illuminated with unique jewels of obscure ironies and tragedies in Rousseau's work. Hence, Johnston's keen observation of hidden ideological meaning in Rousseau is an imperative addition to any political literary collection. This book is recommended as required reading for both scholars and avid followers of theory who wish to augment political discourse with the decorative nature of Johnston's perspective. A must-read for political science students, and a necessity for those academicians possessing a dire need for flair in their lecture discussions. A brilliant achievement!

After completing my reading of the Faithful River by Zeromski I am reminded of "The English Patient", the movie starring Ralph Fiennes from several years back. Zeromski does a magnificant job of setting the ambience for this work and the reader is transported into the mind of the Soldier as he struggles to live. This book is exremely well transalated by Bill Johnston and is a pleasure for any one to read.

I am fascinated by war novels. ("All Quiet on the Western Front" is one of my favorites.) And this book was very good. I've just finished reading it once through, and I immediately went back to read it a second time. When I first got it, I opened it up, read the first paragraph, and then stopped to say "Wow." There have been many (translated) foreign novels that I've read that are somewhat halting and broken as far as the language is concerned. ("All Quiet on the Western Front" included.) That was not the case with this novel. It was very fluid and smooth . . . very much like the river of the title. I originally checked this book out from a library, and liked it so much that I've come online to try and purchase it. I hope you like it as much as I did.

There are few books that my kids remember as fondly as "Four Scary Stories", but it is a keeper that everyone loves ~ a pleasure for adults to read and fun for kids to listen to....

I have three young boys and they always fine this story fun to read or have read to them. They like to see the tables turned and the BOY giving the goblin, imp and scalawag their owen medicine. Good for Halloween or anytime of year. If you like this you might also try the "Vanishing Pumpkin" from the duo of Tony Johnson and Tomie Depaola.

We got this book from the library, but I had to buy my own copy of it. My twin baby boys love it. They are only 5 1/2 months old and this is the first book I've read to them that they are very interested in. I make the "Boo Hoo Hoo" and "Trek Trek Trek" sounds to them all the time and they smile and laugh. Highly recommend as one of the first books to read to a baby, and probably through toddler age.

Somewhere in an icy mountainous landscape, two silly parents are dispairing of their baby's refusal to eat anything - and are BOO-HOO-HOO!'ing loudly.
A small witch appears to gloat over knowing the solution & she doesn't have a lot of willpower bc the second they start their Boo-hoo-hoo! again she Shrieks STOP BLUBBERING & spills the beans - they need to go and track a yak bc yaks (milk) will stop the baby from starving.

The illustrations are fantastic and expressive, from the gloomy yak on the front cover to the dumpy little witch and goony kooky parents.

It is exceedingly silly, I promise you, and a delight to read aloud - especially if you specialise in crazy voices.
Your kids will shreik along and have great fun with the jolly text. Track a Yak!
Kotori 2004

A very useful guide for students who know nothing about this fantastic literature!

An excellent collection of scholarly yet accessible articles, and a good place to start your reading on this subject. This volume covers the earliest Welsh poets - Taliesin and Aneirin - as well as the 9th century saga poems, the later Poets of the Princes, and the prose tales of the Mabinogion. (500 - 1282 AD)

For anyone researching the Johnstons of the Soo this book is a must have.

As a descendant of the people chronicled in this novel I was very moved to find a link to my ancestors. But I think, even if I had not been a descendant, I would have learned a great deal about this region of our country and the culture of those who lived and founded a life there. I was most taken by how thoroughly the French and American Indian culture mixed together creating one all its own.