Owens Books

Owen Wister was born in Philadelphia into elite society, went to Harvard where he studied music and the law, travelled out West because of ill health, fell in love with Wyoming and began writing short stories with western themes. In 1902 he published THE VIRGINIAN, which was a huge success, selling over a million copies. Although he wrote many other books after that, including fiction, history, and biography, none came even close to the success of THE VIRGINIAN.

Basically he was a reactionary, despising progress, and a blatant racist (LADY BALTIMORE, his second best-know work of fiction, is rife with racist ideas). But he was friends with everyone from Teddy Roosevelt and Henry James to Hemingway. Payne's biography is a good one and will probably become definitive. Wister today is thought of as pretty much a one-shot wonder, associated totally and only with THE VIRGINIAN.

This book is AWESOME, a wonderful story about making new friends and fitting in. In the story Owen has to make some tough choices and the reader gets to choose with Owen. Each path shows the reader the consequences of their choice.
A beautifully written and illustrated book about real life situations. I can't wait for the next in the series!

i read this book when i was five, it was one of my favorites, and i had it memorized with reading it by myself, and having my parents, and grandparents read it with me. this was a great experience, and i will share this wonderful story with my children.:)

The illustrations are great, and the information is above the norm found in children's books. I especially liked learning how tree frogs use their eyes to help them swallow food.

Pain-free with Magnet Therapy is an excellent introduction to the field of magnet therapy. This book is a good starting point for anyone who wants to use magnets to treat a health condition: use it to sort out fact from fiction when it comes to assessing the claims of magnet manufacturers and salespeople. Lara Owen has done a great deal of research and in this book describes in plain English what science knows about magnets and what they can and cannot do. Yet Owen does not exclude the tantalizing possibilities that haven't yet been researched but are suggested by the stories of people who have tried magnets.

The book is also interesting because Owen explores the idea that as we come to understand magnet therapy better, we'll gain clues needed to understand other mysterious therapies: acupuncture, homeopathy, reflexology and similar medical systems that rely on energetic, rather than biochemical, intervention.

After reading this book, I can unreservedly recommend it to anyone who wants to learn how to work with magnets for pain relief and self-healing with knowledge and confidence.

The Eight are eight artists who changed the art world. They include Arthur Davies, William Glackens, Robert Henri, Ernest Lawson, George Luks, Maurice Prendergast, Everett Shinn, and John Sloan.

Prior to 1908, it was difficult for artists to become known without a membership in the National Academy of Design. When Arthur B. Davies' and Ernest Lawson's application for membership were rejected, these eight artists broke free from tradition and created an independent exhibition at Macbeth Galleries in an attempt to advance American modern art.

Obviously, they succeeded by setting the stage for future unjuried independent exhibitions.

This book discusses the difficulties this group of artists faced in addition to the excitement they created and the support they received. It's a fascinating look into an event that truly changed the face of the art world.

The Eight arrived on the heels of the Fauves. Five of these members were associated with the Ashcan School-- a term used (sometimes quite disparagingly) to denote urban realism in art. These members were Glackens, Henri, Luks, Sloan, and Davies.

The Eight, however, did not exhibit because their art shared a unified asthetic; instead, their art was considered disparate in style. While the five mentioned previously painted gritty poorer neighborhoods, derelicts and prostitutes, Henri focused mostly on portraiture while Davies', Lawson's, and Predergast's work included mostly landscapes.

In addition to differing subject matter, their styles also differed immensely. Sloan, Glackens (reminiscent of Renoir) and Luks used a loose broad brushstroke while Prendergast's work clearly showed post-impressionist influence with brighter colors. Lawson, on the other hand, used darker, earthier colors. Henri's work is very similar in style to John Singer Sargent's.

The author writes, "In effect, visitors were confronted by with separate and independent constituent exhibitions".

The Eight's exhibit toured nationally and closed in 1909. Later, they exhibited with Matisse, Duchamp, Picasso, Hopper and Bellows among others. The Eight, especially Robert Henri (with Alfred Steiglitz) are credited with leading American art into a new era-- Realism and Modernism.

This is the most powerful oral history book on the Vietnam experience I have ever read. These vets take you to the soul of their horror and grab you with the insanity of their current situation - it still eats at them every day.

I first learned of the book when I saw it listed in a bookseller's catalog. Intrigued by the description, I purchased the book and quickly read this engaging memoir about the early years of a fascinating woman.

The granddaughter of two Liberal Members of Parliament, Shiela Grant Duff grew up in the shadow of the First World War. When she graduated from Oxford in 1934, she dedicated herself idealistically, almost quixotically, to stopping a repetition of the conflict. Determined to learn the causes of war, she took the advice of Arnold Toynbee and became a foreign correspondent. In 1936 she moved to Prague, where she met a number of leading Chechoslovak figures and played a minor role in the Munich crisis two years later, acting as an intermediary between Winston Churchill and members of the Czechoslovakian government as they attempted in vain to halt the course of events. After the crisis she returned to England, where she spoke and wrote on Czechoslovakia in the months leading up to the outbreak of war in September of 1939.

Grant Duff's memoir is an enjoyable account of a life and a career fired by idealism. Though the Second World War casts a shadow across its pages, she does not temper her account with hindsight or cynicism, making her optimism and determination more comprehensible as a result. Adding to her story are those of her many friends whom she interweaves into her account, showing how they effected her life. Of them, it is her friendship with Adam von Trott that takes center stage, from their first meeting at Oxford to the growing estrangement between them that gives the book's title its meaning. Using generous selections from their correspondence, she shows how their relationship declined in parallel with the deterioration of peace in Europe, adding poignancy to this wonderful memoir which enlightens about the decade and the people who lived through it.

This book is worth reading. It is truly wonderfully written. Dr. Owens has lead an incredible life. He truly genuinely displays his care, and describes what he has experienced and learned flawlessly. I recommend everyone to take time to read this novel at least once, if not twice.


:)
Aisha Sapp
Houston, TX

Halegua's hypnotic writing is lovely white noise (not quite) muting the bigotry that impacted our society mid-century and that sadly still exists. I'm concerned that this small but amazing story is not better known. In its stylistic radiance and for the courage of its author to speak the unspeakable, even the unredeemable, it should be recognized, discussed, cherished.