Owens Books

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.

Born Gay is an excellent overview to the amazing body of research that is now available concerning the biology behind homosexuality. As the author of Dynamic Duos: The Alpha/Beta Key to Unlocking Success in Gay Relationships I found this book to be a valuable guide and resource in my own research. I highly recommend it to anyone who has ever questioned the biological basis for sexual and affectional differences.

Born Gay: The Psychobiology of Sexual Orientation is an impressive analysis of numerous studies that explore the etiology of sexual orientation. Wilson and Rahman investigate a multitude of variables that are suspected to cause, reveal, or predict a non-heterosexual sexual orientation among men and women. Born Gay is an excellent reader-friendly resource for anyone who wishes to understand the scientific works surrounding sexual orientation. This book will inform, educate and empower you.

This is a review of all significant research into the causes of homosexuality, both male and female.

The writers objectively review the scientific studies of gay people and present the findings clearly and in a readable style.
Many interesting questions are asked: What might cause someone to be gay? Does homosexuality run in families? Does childhood behaviour predict adult sexuality?

I recommend this book particularly to gay people. It explains causes of homosexuality and every gay person should have knowledge of this area.

I also recommend this book to anyone who wants to be informed about gay people and sexuality in general. This is an important book that deserves attention and a wide audience.

This book is a gem! The writing is excellent, the plot is engaging, the characters' dialogue is witty, and the setting is so real you feel as though you're walking right along with Captain Owen as he navigates the various neighborhoods of Cairo hunting down a lead. Best of all, the book is filled with that droll, dry British sense of humor. There are some laugh-out-loud moments as Owen has to negotiate/cajole/lightly threaten a number of haughty civil servants and bureaucrats.

I like this series much more than Michael Pearce's "Dead Man" series (A Dead Man in Istanbul, A Dead Man in Athens, etc). The writing is much better and the plots are more interesting. So if any of you out there weren't impressed by the "Dead Man" series, I highly recommend you give this Mamur Zapt series a try. I'm so glad my local library has this series. It's a real shame that these books aren't more readily available.

In 1910, Gareth Owen serves as the Mamur Zapt in the British colony Egypt. Gareth's job is to resolve crimes with political implications. When the economy was booming, Gareth often looked the other way. The recent economic collapse makes those cases he pursues that much harder as no one wants to cooperate.

When A Ministry of Agriculture civil servant dies at his work desk, Gareth claims potential political problems with this death. He leads the official inquiry even as pressure mounts for him to end the investigation immediately. Normally, Owen would heed the advise of the local establishment including his peers and superiors, but this time he stubbornly follows the money trail of the deceased though his actions places his position in jeopardy.

This historical who-done-it will excite readers on several levels. The story line contains an engaging police procedural, a fabulous look at a rarely seen time and locale (at least in western novels), and a glimpse into the hierarchy of the Empire where the sun never set. Historical, mystery, and political fans will enjoy THE CAMEL OF DESTRUCTION as Michael Pearce provides a triumphant look back into a bygone era through the microscope of a strong investigative tale.

riet Klausner

Michael Pearce does it again in this mystery, part of his Mamur Zapt series set in Egypt during British Rule. An additional mystery is why this series isn't readily available at bookstores. I have searched for years and not found them; only Amazon came to the rescue.
The series is a treasure. Intelligent mysteries that are really novels, charmingly written, tongue in cheek dialogue, an engaging hero in an exotic time and place that is generally little known. Descriptions of the hero's contact with the local population outrageously funny. Every discerning reader will enjoy these. Thankfully, he's written a lot.

Bordewijk has a special style of writing. He uses just enough words to characterize people. This book is probably one of the best books he ever wrote. It is the fight between a father and his basterd son. This son tries to get attention from his father by trying to be better all the time. His father forces him into this role by not paying attention. It is a hate-love story. If you want to read something from Dutch literature this is really it!

Character (by Bordewijk) is one of the best books in Dutch literature history! I can strongly recommend you to read it. There is a high chance that you will actually re-read it, as I did!

The movie "Character" was based on this book and won an Oscar in 1997 for the best foreign movie. In fact, the film is also highly recommended!

Probably the main reason for my recommendation is the theme of the book: a man's persistance and his father's challenges.

Dit boek heb ik gelezen in 1983 voor mijn boekenlijst. Een vader zit zijn bastaardzoon voortdurend dwars om hem te harden voor het harde leven. Liefde kan hij niet uiten maar is wel degelijk aanwezig. De relatie tussen vader en zoon maakt het de zoon moeilijk om een emotionele band met een vrouwelijke collega te krijgen. Een aanrader.

I am a curriculum project manager at Houston ISD. I have been researching material for a Story-teller program we are starting this summer and... this is the best!

As a classroom storyteller, I have found this teacher's guide and collection of tellable stories to be extremely useful, clear, and reliable. The experience and common sense of the authors provide teachers with a valuable resource for storytelling. You will use this book again and again.

If I were forced to choose only one resource to help me as I teach kids how to go about choosing, learning and telling a story, this would be it. The authors have extensive experience helping thousands of children to tell stories through their school residencies. Many ideas and activities are spelled out to help teachers or coaches prepare students for the often scary task of getting in front of the audience and telling a tale. A variety of methods for story-learning are detailed, allowing for the variety of learning styles encountered in a classroom. Many ideas for ways to use storytelling in school, from a school festival to an inter-generational fair, are suggested.

Especially enjoyable are the many real-life story maps, quotes and photos of kids involved in this rewarding activity. An anthology of twenty-five stories for kids to tell is included to get your student tellers started.

We do not give kids enough opportunities to get up in front of a group and share something they love. Storytelling bridges so many of these gaps, and even the shyest kids often discover a new-found love when given the chance to tell a story. If you are at all considering having kids tell stories, get this book. It will convince you that you are making the right choice, and give you the tools to carry out your ideas.

(Gwyn is a professional storyteller who has coached many middle school students in the telling of their first story).

This city source book is excellent. It details everything you need to run a city setting, lots of encounter tables, what buildings are where and what they are for, law enforcement and what happends when PCs have a brush with the law, and the maps are excellent. The city has a gritty realistic feel to it in that if you were to step into a city set in a heroic fantasy campign world this is the kind of stuff you would see. Its set in the wilderlands campaign setting but could be used in any setting with little modifcations.

Having read this book cover to cover, I must say that I was very impresed by the level of detail. (I particularly enjoyed the descriptions of the prisoners in the Overlord's dungeon.) Of course, having used the older Judge's Guild products, I wasn't surprised. Anyone wanting to base a campaign in an urban setting should buy this book either to use as-is or as an inspiration for their own creation. Good stuff.

Its great to have a city book like this. The maps are outstanding. If you're a gamer buy this today

This is the most important publication concerning Psychiatry in the 90's. I wrote this book "with a little help from my friends", specially Gustavo Prado, a brazilian medicine student (a genious, I bet. He was just 17 y/o when this book was first issued). R.E.Kendell

Extremely focused and balanced general text of contemporary psychiatry.Primarily geared towards the MRCPsych, but also useful for other psychiatry boards. Basic sciences have been updated w/o being too overwhelming. New section on sociology has been added which was omitted on the last ed. The new layout is also more pleasing to the eye. Overall it's an wonderful alternative to K/S synopsis.

In my opinion as a psychiatry resident, this is the best textbook bar none for medical students and junior doctors. The Oxford double volume is far more comprehensive and a must-have for serious players, but where the Oxford tomes are encyclopaedic this item is practical and user-friendly. It is also a pleasure to read, which is significant advantage over Kaplan and Saddock's Synopsis.

Seamus Heaney pulls through again with his brilliant translation of Sophocles' Philoctetes. The tragic story of the forgotten hero, Philoctetes, provides a unique insight into the conflicts between personal moral beliefs and political calling. Odysseus persuades the heroic Neoptolemus into tricking the mamed Philoctetes into giving up the bow of Hercules. This act challenges the admired traits of the ancient world and draws into question the importance of personal beliefs. As each character represents a different aspect of the Greek world, a fight for beliefs - fidelity, pity, piety - endures. As for the translation itself, Heaney provides a beautiful interpretation of the story as seen in the words of the chorus:

History says, Don't hope
On this side of the grave.
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up,
And hope and history rhyme.

This enriched translation strays slightly from the ancient text in order to enhance the understanding of the modern reader. Overall, this fast-moving play entices and enchants through a lyrical harmony like no other. Bravo, Seamus. Bravo.

Seamus Heaney's version of trials for the Greek archer entrusted with Hercules' infallible bow and arrows gives us affirmation and points of reflection. Heaney does not dash the ancient dialogue style on the rocky island; rather it is enriched for the modern reader. Honoring the timelessness of Sophocles, Heaney allows today's reader to make comparisons of private nature and choices with the public need and will. The hero, Achilles' son, Neoptolemus, finds that the strategy to take Troy for the Greeks runs counter to his nature of honesty and integrity. We wrestle with him over the choices. We tumble with him when he loses his grip. We crawl back to sure footing along side the hero. I found myself understanding the characters based on different experiences in my life. Philoctetes bemoans his ill-fated injury which leaves him abandoned and full of vengeance. Human empathy allows him to examine his tight grip on his woundedness without denying what he has endured. Odysseus, the pragmatic lieutenant of war, is shown for his utility and foibles. As in all Greek plays, the chorus calls the characters and the reader to reflection, "...For my part is the chorus, and the chorus is more or less a borderline between the you and the me and the it of it." Heaney got the "it of it" for us to take our own measure.

"The Cure at Troy," translated by Seamus Heaney offers a delightful translation of Sophocles' "Philoctetes." With a compelling tale from anchient times layed out before him, Heaney applies colloquial speach diction to the play. This accessability offers the audience a window into the basic moral struggle occuring at the heart of the work. A finly crafted story draws the reader to the characters. A worthwhile read.

I saw this book at an William-Sonoma store and I since I was throwing an outdoor party the following weekend, I thought this would be an appropiate book! Boy, was it! Everything I made was a huge hit... the cold artichokes, the corn and tomato salad, and the BLT wraps... just to name a few. It was all really easy to prepare and the tastes were incredible. People thought I had the food catered!
The photos really helped in my deciding what I would cook and this book is filled with them.
I highly recommend this book!...

I love Williams-Sonoma and with this cookbook they really out did themselves. There are recipes for every occassion and time of year. The chicken and jack cheese quesadillas on page 211 are very easy to make and even easier to eat:) I highly suggest this book to any level of cook.

This book is lovely to own. The photographs are very artistic. I have made some of the recipes & they turned out great! The ingredients are not too obscure or complex. The foods are down to earth, yet interesting. The pictures are very inspirational. I would defintiely recommend this book.

What a great book. It really kept me in suspense. I enjoyed the supense and the idea of this book. Mulder believes Pusher can force people to kill and commit suicides through his will but Scully is unsure. She only gets convinced when Mulder puts her at gunpoint. Will she be able to survive Mulder's shot. See it in this great book CONTROL. Nice heading also

I loved this book so much when I first read it, it was like I was watching it on tv. I even used it in an assighnment for English thats how much I loved it. I recomend this book for everyone. Everyone out there go buy this book!!!

This was an awsomebook. I really enjoyed reading it