Kansas Books

I highly recommend this book for those astute Danish scholars. A MUST read! Great translation done by Inga Larsen!!!

I found this book to be very informative for those interested in Danish history. A MUST read! GREAT translation done by Inga Larsen.

This book is a "must have" for anyone, especially the Wichitans who live where most of Gino's sculptures are located! Artists, sculptors and painters will also enjoy and appreciate the talent of Gino Salerno. Not only does it serve as interesting piece of local history, it would make a great tabletop book or unique gift for someone.

Unfortunately, some of the statues only exist as photos presented in the book, due to acts of vandalism. Some have been relocated to private organizations or homes. It is such a delight to be able to see them around Wichita, and some are still around for our viewing pleasure.

This truly is a beautiful book, with some insights shared by the author on his favorite types of woods and tools that he uses.

He still does sculptures, and his contact information is in the book. After seeing all these, you'll want one of your own.

As soon as Gino started with his wood sculptures, a kind lady started to secretly keep track of his work, taking pictures and notes of all of his pieces.

Some years later she died, and left Gino a complete record of his own artistic carreer.

That's why this book offers a unique perpective of Salerno's art, from it's origins to his last pieces, including some that have been destroyed by vandalism or weather, and others that have been stolen. You'll be able to see all the techniques, styles and themes that the artist has explored over the last decade. Some of the sculptures are simply superb.

It's 95% photographic, with just enough explanation to get an idea of his personality, the way he works and some secrets of intrest for other wood artists.

I have enjoyed exploring the work that this peruvian artist living in Wichita, Kansas; a work that is just starting it's way into the rest of America.

This is the second book I have read by this author(Bygones book#1 of the Sommerfield Trilogy, was the first),and I am so impressed with the quality of her writing. She is truly gifted. I could not put this book down until I was finished with it early this morning! Really makes one think about about the plight of the disabled and their families,usually because of the cruelty of some members of society,and how people could truly bless their lives by welcoming them into society, encouraging,and supporting their independence so that they can live as fulfilling lives as possible.

Her storylines and characters are so absorbing I plan to read everything she has written,in fact, her "Waiting For Summer's Return" is next.I am anxiously awaiting the release of her 2nd book in the Sommerfield Trilogy book "Beginnings" in October.

Once I started reading Dear John, I didn't want to stop. Kim Vogel Sawyer is an amazingly gifted story teller. Her characters are compelling and captivating. One of the greatest things I walked away with after reading this story was a deep love, respect and understanding for those with Down syndrome. My heart went out to Marin, whose parents were killed on the way home from her college graduation. Marin not only inherited her father's company but she also became sole caretaker of her down-syndrome brother John. Stressed to the max, she searches for some much needed help. Along comes Philip Wilder; the answer to her prayers. Or was he? Philip has a secret that threatens to send her world crashing in around her. Trust me, this is one story you won't want to miss.

Jared wasn't particularly interested in a good looking woman, all he needed was a housekeeper...not that he would pass up a bed partner. Coming up out of a hangover, the sombre [yet handsome?] rancher got a bit of a shock when he saw Glenna and she revealed her bruises.

Glenna was willing to learn what it took to live on the Kansas prairie if only she could provide the promised home for her blind sister, Mary. But her foiled attempts with her widow's disguise to gain money to support her sister raised many doubts in Jareds' mind. What was she up to??

Little by little the generous gestures by Glenna began to make a small impression on Jared. Just don't ask about "Janie".
Glenna's conclusion was that Jared had loved Janie very much.
Glenna took immediately to Lyden...the twenty month old son of Jared.

I loved meeting Jared's brother, Joseph and his wife, Cally. And their eight children, 17 year old John, 16 year old Charity, then 15 year old twins, Matthew and Mark [they picked them up in Topeka on their way to the ranch] then there is 14 year old, Luke who is quiet and musical, like his mother.
[grin] Jared figured that his brother must have needed a rest because the next set of twins are 10 year old, Peter and Paul. [chuckle, chuckle] then six years later, little 4 year old Annie is born, "she is a sweetheart" according to Jared and she wants to marry Uncle Jared when she grows up. Oh, yes, and Cally is expecting again. Whee! what a great family.

Joseph is 36 and Jared is 33 [boy, does he have a way to go - sibling competition, you know] Of course Glenna is only 24.

Glenna, being from Chicago [Jared's nickname for her was "city-girl"]just about had histerics when a rattlesnake appeared up from the floorboards and was heading for the baby. One of the many reasons why Jared kept telling Glenna that it was too dangerous for a blind child to live on the ranch. But Glenna kept trying to think up adjustments to make the ranch livable for Mary.

Oh, yes - it did take a while for Glenna to let her handsome husband into her bed.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED - thoroughly enjoyable - excellent read and keeps you interest.

I was pleasantly suprised when I picked up the re-issue of this book in the American Hero series(Kansas). I do not usually read to many historicals, but I quickly became involved in the story of Jared and Glenna. Jared who runs an add in the Chicago paper for a wife who is suitable for prairie life. He makes it quite clear that he is not capable of love and his "wife" would simply be nothing more than a hired hand who was also responsible for raising his son. Glenna, answers the ad in the hopes of getting her and her little sister out of an abusive situation. This story did not have any weak moments and because it is not as long as your typical historical novel, reading it in one sitting was easily done. This is a story I would go back to again and again.

From the cover: Young Barbara Temple is ambivalent about her move from genteel Atlanta to the raw Kansas prairie. With the onset of the Civil War and her parents now dead, she is forced to make the best of the situation by living with her homesteading relatives who gladly open their cabin home to her. Barbara dreams about returning to Atlanta when the war ends to marry Matthew Potter, a captain in the Confederate Army. But God has other plans for this vivacious southern belle whose spiritual condition is exposed on the rugged prairie that becomes her destiny.

I would recomed this book to every person who likes romance. I think it is really sad that Matthew dies before Barbra marries him. But I'm glad of the ending!

As a resident of the great plains for eleven years I found this book the best ever on the subject. Johnsgard's writing weaves its way in and among the best photos I have ever seen of the wildlife of this area. As a photographer I have some idea of the work involved in capturing the great images seen in this book. Bob Gress has done an outstanding job with the photographs, the best I have ever seen. If you are a resident or even a visitor to the great plains you owe it ot yourself to get a copy of this book and study it cover to cover.

As a resident of the Great Plains I have found it difficult to find information about the wildlife of the area since moving here 11 years ago. Until now, that is! This books has it all. The writing of Johnsgard flows well in and around the fantastic images of Gress. As a photographer I know what it takes to get good images of the wildlife around here. To get EXCELLENT images takes time, patience and an understanding of the habitat and habits of the animals that call the great plains home. I was able to spend one short morning in a blind with Bob Gress photographing the Greater Prairie Chicken. Not only did he have an excellent blind but it was in the right place, on their lek and we were there at the right time. My photos, while nice captures of the birds were not nearly as well executed as Bob's.

If you are a fan of the last remaining plains in North America as I am and want the ultimate book of the wildlife here, this is it! You will be awestruck by the images but be sure to read the prose as well.

This was the long-awaited sequel to Ghost Towns of Kansas: A Travellers Guide, which came out in 1988. The Travellers Guide was actually a greatest hits packaging of the first three volumes, which were published from 1976-1983.

Essentially, this was the first book of all new material in about ten years. The book is a fun read, although it is uncertain whether Fitzgerald wanted this to be a travellers guide in the true sense of the word, or a true history. It is very successful as a true history, keeping the audience's attention throughout. As a travellers guide, the explorer will need more directions than this book.

This book follows 18 years of enormous success by the author with the ghost town series. It is hard to figure out which is better known-- the author or the series. Both were nearly household names in Kansas for years. The enormous success of the travellers guide almost dictated that this book would be created. Again, not meant for a cover to cover read, but a read in small doses.

While a big success on its own, this book is a little darker, a little more political in its overall statement. The introduction is probably one of the best features of the book, where Fitzgerald basically states that, if a small town can not sustain its existence on its own, then it deserves ghost town status.

This book examines a hundred different ghost towns around the state and there's a fun story about each one.

Nothing substantial on Kansas history has really been written, and has been as much fun to read, since this book was published. Mr. Fitzgerald, you are overdue for a sequel. Thousands of your fans are bored out here. Write Ghost Towns 6 before we become ghosts out of boredom with the literature we're getting these days.

Really good book, recommended.

This is a sequel to Fitzgerald's GHOST TOWNS OF KANSAS, which appeared in 1988. The format of this book is the same as the earlier one: sections of the state are presented and then counties within each section, with the "lost" towns being listed by county. The descriptions of each town is thorough and interesting, with many photographs being included. Anyone interested in local history of Kansas will find this (and the earlier volume) indispensible. Both books represent two of the best guides to local history now available.

If you want a real understanding of US/USSR military cooperation (or lack of) during World War II, read this book. I read this book and the classic John Deane book "The Strange Alliance" and feel I really came away with a much better understanding of relations between the Americans and Soviets during World War II, and also, gained a much better understanding of the coming Cold War between the two countries. Several other books have been written on Operation FRANTIC, but they pale in comparison to this work. Very scholarly research. Only wish in book was a closer examination of the propaganda generated in the United States by the shuttle bombing missions and any effects they may have had on FRANTIC.

Mark J. Conversino, Fighting with the Soviets: The Failure of Operation Frantic, 1944-1945 (Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 1997). xi + 284 pp.

Conversino's book examines a little-known Soviet-American cooperative effort known as "Operation FRANTIC," which amounted to "the longest sustained contact between members of the United States and Soviet military establishments during World War II." (p. 210). A professor of airpower history at the Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama and a major in the U.S. Air Force, Mark Conversino is well-qualified to write this monograph. His overall conclusion is that Operation FRANTIC failed in its mission, but he provides a sophisticated account of its positive contributions as well. The objective of the operation was to set up bases in the Soviet Union from which U.S. bomber fleets could open a new front in the air against Germany, thereby dispersing and weakening the German Luftwaffe. The U.S. pilots had found that daylight bombing over Hitler's Germany was too dangerous; the attrition rate was too high. They reasoned that, if they could stage bombing raids from the USSR, they could cut their casualty rate and air travel time in half. They also hoped to lay the foundation for greater joint endeavors in the Far East. It was not a new idea to collaborate with the Soviets vis-a-vis the use of air forces, and experience in China showed the Army Air Force (AAF) that it was possible to mount and support aerial operations from even the most remote and undeveloped areas. For Averell Harriman, U.S. Ambassador to the USSR, a second purpose of the mission was to demonstrate solidarity between the two countries. A number of problems arose that caused tension among the American GIs and Soviet military officials. The process of establishing bases at Poltava, Mirgorod, and Piryatin were delayed because Stalin and other Soviet leaders were most concerned about relieving German pressure against the USSR's eastern front. Thus, they preferred an Allied second land front in Western Europe to an "air front" from their own territory. Moreover, Stalin apparently did not believe strategic bombing was very important, believing airplanes should be used primarily for tactical support to ground forces. He was also loath to allow such a large foreign military presence within his own country. Once the bases were established, the lack of accurate, timely information irritated American personnel. Soviet officials informed them that they needed at least twenty-four hours' notice for authorities in Moscow to clear flight plans and notify the front line troops and air defense units. Naturally this worried the Americans, who feared their operations would be hampered by such lengthy notification times. (p. 41) Also, since the vast majority of Soviet sorties were flown at or close behind the front itself, Soviet authorities tended to present information relative only to a particular mission and not to the entire theater. These procedures created problems for Eastern Command's intelligence officers during the FRANTIC missions as the aircrews would complain bitterly about the lack of accurate data concerning German fighter and flak defenses (p. 49). Although Soviet officials gave Americans total freedom to communicate with U.S. aircraft over Soviet soil, the Americans had to rely on a rudimentary Soviet teletype service among the three bases. Telephone lines among the three bases simply did not exist. By June 1944, Eastern Command had resorted to courier aircraft for interbase messages because of the technical unreliability of the teletype network (p. 50). Since the bases were extremely bare and isolated (especially Piryatin), maintaining the morale of the American troops became a challenge. U.S. soldiers began to "fraternize" with local Ukrainian women. Angry Soviet officials then forbade such fraternization, and the atmosphere between Soviet and American troops on the bases cooled. On the other hand, the Americans did recognize Soviet efforts to make the bases inhabitable for the Americans. While the U.S. Army Air Force brought most of the equipment it needed (including steel matting for runways, high octane gasoline, special purpose vehicles, most rations, and all housekeeping supplies), the Soviets agreed to provide some vehicles, fresh meat, fruits and vegetables, bedding, and of course, housing. They also provided 250-kilogram bombs and machine gun ammunition, and agreed to unload all shipments at the point of entry and move them by rail or truck convoy to Eastern Command bases. (p. 47). The Americans were impressed by the fact that the Soviets transported the equipment all the way from Murmansk in a relatively short period of time, and that much of the work in laying the steel matting was done by female Red Army soldiers. They also admired the Soviet commander, Major General Perminov, who was "a keen, straightforward flyer and routinely used his authority to cut through the red tape to settle on the spot the myriad problems that arose each day" (p. 41). Two possible weaknesses of the book are the lack of primary Russian-language sources and the excessive detail. On the other hand, Conversino makes excellent use of primary U.S. Army sources, such as unpublished manuscript and oral history collections and interviews with actual participants. World War Two and airpower historians will find this book a useful contribution to the extant literature, and selected portions of the book could also be assigned in undergraduate courses.

Flint Hills Cowboys by James F. Hoy places you on the saddle of a horse loping through the historic Flint Hills of Kansas. Mr. Hoy himself grew up in the Hills and was raised working cattle alongside some of the best cowboys the region has reared. Chock-full of authentic and personal stories, the reader continually feels like one of the cowboys living the exciting, and difficult, life of a Flint Hills Cowboy.
The book both informs and delights. Mr. Hoy lacks pretentiousness and his writing is accessible. After completing the book, it was obvious to me that he desires only one thing: to share his love and passion for the Flint Hills of Kansas and all the colorful and honorable people who dwell there.

Flint Hills Cowboys: Tales Of The Tallgrass Prairie by Jim Hoy (Professor of English and Director of the Center for Great Plains Studies at Emporia State University) is the engaging combination of personal memories, frontier history, and folklore tales about the prairie lands of the Flint Hills country of eastern Kansas. A remarkable and inherently fascinating anthology of stories and anecdotes of the rodeo, ranching, ranch hands, and working with stubborn cattle and contrary horses, Flint Hills Cowboys reflects upon a half-century of life and times in the Flint Hills. As a superbly presented compendium of action, humor, lore, and history, Jim Hoy's Flint Hills Cowboys is very strongly recommended and entertaining reading for all anyone with an interest in the landscape, people and history of the Flint Hills country.

I was getting really tired of books on people having affairs, or kids who suffer in broken homes, dysfunctional family, irresponsible parents, etc. when I came across this book. There is no affairs, sexual contents, divorce, or alcoholics/drug addicts in this book, thank goodness, and the protagonist's family is in good accord, even though there are some disagreements and distresses at times. From that perspective, one may call this book unique. It was quite refreshing to read about a functioning family facing external problems and issues which affect them internally.

The protagonist is a 9-yr-old girl, Eva, who is a mature thinker for her age. Her sense of justice and fairness and what is right and wrong is very strong, and she seems to know how to make good argument about moral and racial issues. She often strikes up a discussion about these matters with adults around her, is capable of carrying the discussion at adult level. Yet she's still emotionally a child, and sometimes her weaknesses and childish selfishness show involuntarily.

The Hoffmans have migrated from Vienna, fleeing Hitler's claws and settled in Topeka, KS. The father is a doctor (psychiatrist?), and the mother is a stay-home mama, with a very strong sense of moral and justice. Because of their own experience as Jews, they believe in human equality, and try to practice their belief in their daily life by treating black people, mentally ill people, white flood victims with the same principle, in the midst of white people who are trapped in racism and bigotry, and try to get along. They fled Europe's prejudice to the country of freedom (America), but they find the same prejudice, which is quite disappointing and disheartening. And they fight against it by living what they believe.
However, even though they share the same principle, they all have different ideas on how to practice it in details, in their daily life. When they take in the ignorant, bigotry red-neck flood victim family Willgers to their home, each of the HOffmans reacts and acts differently. The mother tries to be really nice, cheerful, and do everything she can to make the Willgers feel at home, despite the insensitive racial comments her guests drop here and there. The father tolerates their presence, but withdraws to himself, failing to pay attention to his daughters' emotional needs. Eva's young innocent sister Sarah hits it off with Jolie, the Willgers' naughty, poorly mannered, insensitive, disrespectful daughter. Eva, the protagonist, is the one who sees the hypocricy and unfairness all around her and simply cannot take the insults and bigotry that these strangers demonstrate at her home. The poor girl is retreated up in attic, as a result of giving up her room to the Willgers, no longer finds a place for herself in the family or home.

Each family member acts and reacts differently to this stress of living with people who belive in ideas which he/she doesn't approve of, who may well have hated their Jewish hosts if they weren't victims of the flood. And one wonders who's action or reaction is right and who's is wrong. Each one has good reasons for the way he/she acts and reacts, and one starts thinking that there is really no right or wrong, as each is trying to be honest and morally correct.

The issues are mind-boggling, and there are quite a few important discussions and dialogues that make you think and question yourself.
The ending is, as the editorial suggests, unfortunately dissatisfying. I wish the author has taken more time and pages to complete the story. But it is still worth the read. The 9-yr-old protagonist is totally believable and capable of receiving the reader's sympathy, and you will see the world through her eyes. It's a unique book, and I highly recommend it.

Nine year-old Eva Hoffman is an Austrian refugee whose family has found a precarious safety in Topeka, Kansas in 1951, the year of the landmark desegregation case. As the rising river inundates the town, the Hoffmans open their home to refugees from the flood, and Eva learns the complexities of prejudice-and courage-both within and outside her family.

"A richly evocative story of the awakening to adulthood." -- The Los Angeles Times.

"A refreshing and extremely moving novel." --Ms. Magazine

"Eva is...reminiscent of a Carson McCullers heroine." --The New York Times.