Owens Books

Western writer Dane Coolidge observed that a copy of "Lin McLean" could be found in almost any bunkhouse across the West in the first decades of the twentieth century. Its cowboy hero, an early version of Wister's Virginian, who came along just a few years later, has the same boyish charm and natural nobility. Though he comes from Eastern stock, he's a son of the plains, a man of homespun character, mostly unschooled, but both fiercely egalitarian and gentlemanly. An excellent horseman, good with a gun, handsome and gallant in his courtship of women, he is respected by all. Generous to a fault, he also takes under his wing a boy who has run away from a home that we'd describe today as thoroughly dysfunctional.

A series of short stories strung together into a novel, Wister's book is really a romance in a Western setting - the open range and frontier towns of Wyoming in the 1880s, an era already regarded as long past, just a decade later at the time of Wister's writing. There are no gunfights or outlaws. While the book is chiefly a portrayal of an admirable young man, its storyline has to do with the winning of a young woman's hand - two women, actually, each of whom betrays him, one for lack of principle and the other for principles too highly refined.

Altogether, the book is an enjoyable and entertaining read that, besides its occasional quaintness, is fully enjoyable more than 100 years after its writing. Wister has a gift for both humor and poignancy, and while the realities of cowboying, homesteading, and working with cattle hardly get a mention, his depiction of the Old West ranges easily from farce to sentiment to the starkly grim. McLean's visit to Denver at Christmas suggests something of Dickens' London, and the account of a funeral comes as close as anything to black humor. As a precursor to Wister's bestseller "The Virginian," this book raises many issues that get fuller treatment in the later novel. There are even glimpses of the Virginian himself, who gets brief walk-ons, with references to his own longstanding courtship of the schoolmarm from Vermont. With both men, Wister did more than anyone to invent the cowboy hero as he came to be known by everyone, from the bunkhouse to the parlor and eventually to the movie screen.

The Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858 helped bring to a head many significant issues from slavery and states' rights to the legal status of blacks in America, yet most of these debates have been diluted to mere paragraphs over history. Dover's republication of the two speeches and seven debates which originally appeared in a 1913 Putnam hardcover now returns here as a standby for any solid American history collection and makes one of the most pivotal pre-Civil War political events readily accessible to a new generation of readers.

This is an excellent biography of American actress Elizabeth Quinn, who played the role of Sarah in the London stage production of Children of a Lesser God.

Throughout her entire life, Quinn was resented and criticized by others in the deaf community because she didn't quite fit the mold. She became deaf after she learned to speak, and while she became fluent in sign language, her hearing father also provided her with a love of storytelling and he took her to stage plays and musicals as a child. This made her less than deaf. Not hearing, but not Deaf either.

The book is also a story of hope and making impossible dreams come true - Quinn was an integral part of establishing modern deaf theater in America.

I highly recommend this book for coaches who want to be effective in their work with teachers. I was pleased with how the author clarifies the roles of the teacher and the coach. I am recommending that this book be required reading for coaches in my school district.
Elizabeth Hamilton, Hutto, TX

This short book is brimming with black humor, comedy, farce, and an inside look at the the UK acting profession, something which is not always as pretty as one might think..Very breezy and fun, with top drawer dialogue, and interesting, slightly eccentric characters, I dare anyone to try this without finishing it!. Plus, there is a very nifty plot twist that was not a total surprise to this reviewer, but still came as a slight shock! Highly recommended!

Don't let the fact Owen Hardwicke is a Catholic priest and that this book is subtitled 'An Experience of Ministry and Priesthood' put you off; Owen writes so well and with such humour, passion and clarity that you'll find yourself almost partisan as you follow his concerns and issues.

'Living Beyond Conformity' takes us from Owen's early experiences as he quite literally looked for a church to join, through his time in the Friend's Ambulance Unit during the second world war, his first period as a priest and then care worker and on to his contributions to the peace movement in the eighties. But it's no autobiography. His experiences are recounted only as far as they are relevant to the question of what it means to be a priest in a modern ecumenical church.

It's Owen's answer to that question that makes this such a fascinating book; there's no great theory or theology here, Owen answered and is answering that question through his practice. His work with young people of any religion or none, his approach to and vision for Christian worship, his clerical style, his concern for ordinary people and the real practicalities of their lives as opposed to the dictates of church legislation, all these things mark him off of a man of real principle and character - and one able to follow through on the basis of his conscience and convictions.

While talking about the need for nonviolence Owen quotes Meister Eckhart, but could well have been describing what he has done himself his whole life; "Follow your principles and keep straight on; you will come to the right place; that is the way".

And there's his humour, always there. On home: "'If you did not live in Wales,' I was asked, 'where would you like to live?' 'In Wales,' I answered". On Mass: "Jesus said "Take and eat" not "Kneel down and be fed"". There's the great story of him arriving late to see Tommy Cooper; Cooper spots him as he tip-toes down the aisle and says "Sorry, sir, I had to start because it was time to get going".

But the central message is serious enough. Doing himself out of a job as it were, Owen writes "I personally am quite excited by the unconfined way in which Catholics increasingly are celebrating their faith; less and less are people inclined to be confined by the discipline of clergy." The church is changing, dying even, but Owen welcomes many of those changes - as one form of church dies "the seeds of new life have already been planted, and are already pushing up through the soil". Owen's vision of a grassroots church is one that a non-Catholic, even a non-Christian, can cheer on.

Im not much into these type of books much but let me tell you. I purchased the book to support my friend (James D Owens), But little did I know I was actually going to really like the book as much as I do. Now I cant stop talking about the book haha..Get the book and tell me if im wrong... This book is a great read for men and women. Its that good of a story.
Hope my review helped you out.

I picked up this small and unassuming volume in a secondhandbookshop in Dublin. Written by a team of five research students in the early 80s, it details the likely consequences of a nuclear attack on London, based on conditions specified by a 1980 simulation carried out by the British government (Operation Square Leg).

The consequences are appalling. Having grown up in the 80s, constantly aware of the late-Cold War nuclear standoff (and old enough and half-English enough to remember the British Home Office's notorious "Protect and Survive" handbook on what to do in the event of a nuclear holocaust), this book strikes very close to home for me. As indeed it would for anyone else aware of the number of countries in the world with a nuclear arsenal.

The book clearly demonstrates that even with a relatively limited attack such as was assumed in Square Leg (five fairly low-yield bursts around the periphery of Greater London), the majority of the population of London would be dead within a few months - using 1977 census figures, that's 5 out of 7 million people! - and a great majority of the rest would suffer from a variety of radiation-related illnesses, mostly leukaemia. The infrastructure (medical care, power, water, waste disposal) would be rendered useless, civil power would be in the hands of the military, food would be scarce to the point of unavailable, and there would not be enough hospital beds in the rest of Britain to cope with all the curable wounded.

Now that the START II treaty has limited the nuclear capacity of the two major superpowers, and Britain's participation in the arms race has been cut down greatly from its mid-80s peak, the chance of a nuclear war between the US and Russia has been greatly reduced. But this is still a vital book for anyone who still believes that even a tactical nuclear exchange would not escalate, and that a major nuclear exchange could possibly be in any way "survivable". Any exchange of nuclear weapons threatens the survival of life on this planet. It must never happen; the cost of such a thing is scrupulously accounted in this book.

Good look hunting down a copy, though.

Nobody will wish to miss reading this book. Adventure and history mix perfectly together.

Some of the best photos ever reproduced of existing originals. For an historian, reinactor, or gun builder, this is a "must have" book