Kansas Books

I always enjoy a good quilt book, particularly when there is historical evidence involved. Ms. Tomlonson did an excellent job of incorporating the historical information with the quilts shown.

This is an absolutely beautiful book, with full color images of both Mennonie quilts and the landscape of "Amish Country." My only complaint is that it's much too short! The paperbound book is about 125 pages long, and almost exactly the style, size and format of the Amish quilt books by Rachel and Ken Pellman. The story of each quilt is given, whether as just a name, year and current owner, or through a short reminiscence regarding the quilt or its maker. Readers are immediately drawn into the feeling of simplicity, peace, thrift, and heritage as they are treated to lovely photographs of the natural world that surrounds the daily lives of the Mennonite quilters. The quilts themselves, done in slightly more "worldly" fabrics and patterns than their Amish neighbors, will inspire and dazzle you. I love making quilts with traditional designs, such as "Broken Star," "Harvest Sun," "Tumbling Blocks," and "Cactus Basket," all of which I have made or am currently working on. This book is my well-worn reference, my inspiration, my small window to the Mennonite world, and my source of serenity when I find myself going from design hunt page turning to reading the engaging text. If you love traditional quiltmaking as much as I do and can manage to find a copy of this book (now out of print), you will be so very glad you did.

C. Robert Haywood has written a wonderful book on one of the founders (of perhaps two or three men) of Dodge City, Kansas. Wright made millions from cattle and spent it all. Four wives, and 45 years later he died in Dodge City, broke and not famous. He was one of the men who hired Wyatt Earp and was a backer of Bat Masterson, among many other more famous (infamous) Western heros. As President of the Ford County (ie, Dodge City) Historical Society, I assure the reader that no better history of that period has yet been written, except perhaps Robert Wright's own 1913 book on Dodge City. (out of print). Wright is an amazing man, from a family which included a grandfather who was Clerk of the US Supreme Court and a greatgrandfather that was president of the US during the period before the constitution. Great book. (Little known fact: Wright has, in 1999, a greatgrandson, age 80 and a grandson, age 49, still living. That doesn't happen often, but with forty years or so between wife number 1 and wife number 4....) George Laughead Jr.

C. Robert Haywood has written a wonderful book on one of the founders (of perhaps two or three men) of Dodge City, Kansas. Wright made millions from cattle and spent it all. Four wives, and 45 years later he died in Dodge City, broke and not famous. He was one of the men who hired Wyatt Earp and was a backer of Mat Basterson, among many other more famous (infamous) Western hero. As President of the Ford County (ie, Dodge City) historical Society, I assure the reader that no better history of that period has yet been written, except perhaps Robert Wright's book on Dodge City itself. (out of print). Wright is an amazing man, from a family which included a grandfather who was Clerk of the US Supreme Court and a greatgrandfather that was president of the US during the period before the constitution. Great book. (little known fact: Wright still has in 1999 a greatgrandson age 80 and a grandson, age 49, still living. that doesn't happen very often, but with forty years or so between wife number 1 and wife number 4, etc.) George Laughead Jr.

Nate Evans has created a Grahame Base, Dr. Seuss- type book that is a fun read for young and old. Lessons about boasting, cynicism, greediness all rolled up into one fun book. Bongo and Lu have their work cut out for them as they help Prof. Yahoo find "animals" for the queen's zoo. The fact that the Professor has lost his glasses is of no concern to him! One last slip at the end of the day saves the day.

Does Nate Evans have any more books I should know about?

Both me and my children have enjoyed this book a ton! The wonderfully bright illustrations and the rhyming story are fun to read over and over again!

Being a direct descendent of Julia German & having known her as a child I have lived with this story my entire life. Arlene's book however makes this true American tale of courage and survival come alive even for those of us who thought we understood it. Highly suggested reading for historians who want to realize the truth as it was on both sides of the Anglo-Indian issues of that time and/or as an inspirational experience for readers of all ages. There's history here for the reader to experience on every page. Thank you Arlene for bringing the definitive non-ficitional illustration of these events to the general public.

THIS BOOK IS A VERY GOOD PORTRAYAL OF THE GERMAN FAMILY.THE FOUR GERMAN SISTER WERE CAPTIVE OF GRAY BEARD THEIR NAME WERE CATHERINE 17 YEARS OLD AND 12 YEARS OLD SOPHI,ADDIE AND JULIE THE YOUNG ONE'S . CAREFULLY RESERCHED. WHERE WAS CATHERINE IN 1880.

For police chief Susan Wren, trouble started the day Hollywood decided to go on location to shoot a film in her small Kansas town, making her tiny force stretched to the max. However, Trouble with a capital T does not start until stuntwoman Kay Bender, a ringer for superstar Laura Edwards, is killed during a shoot.

During the initial inquiries, Susan learns that Laura has been the victim of several threatening notes. Susan also finds out that her current boy friend, police officer Ben Pankhurst, used to be Laura's spouse, disqualifying him from the case. As Susan digs deeper into the lives of the personalities involved, someone else is murdered. The police chief wonders if she can control her jealousy over Ben's former relationship and if Laura is the ultimate target of the killer.

The fourth Susan Wren mystery is an intriguing who-done-it because it brings much insight into the personal lives of the recurring cast. Though the interspersing of the killer's thoughts into the action seems to cause some inertia, MURDER TAKE TWO remains a well-written, often times humorous novel. Wren fans will have plenty to crow about as they soar like an eagle with Charlene Weir's latest book.

Harriet Klausner

Murder Take Two, by Charlene Weir, is the fourth in a series of high-voltage mysteries. Weir is a master of tight, clean prose; characters the reader can care about; and intricate, twisty plots. Susan Wren, a former San Francisco police officer, becomes police chief of Hampstead, KS, when her new husband, the former chief, is murdered. Initially Susan wants the post because she is driven to catch his killer. Now, three years later, she wonders what is keeping her in this small town where she is still the outsider. Realizing that one part of the answer is something she would prefer not to admit even to herself--her attraction to second in command Ben Parkhurst--she tries unsuccessfully to stamp out her interest in him. In Murder Take Two, a Hollywood film crew is on location in Hampstead. When a stunt double is killed, Susan learns that the movie's leading lady, the lovely Laura, was once married to Parkhurst. Susan orders him off the case, but with Laura begging him to protect her, he can't stay away. As Susan struggles with her jealousy and Parkhurst's insubordination, an appealing young officer, Yancie, follows a string of bizarre episodes to the book's explosive ending. This series has everything going for it: fascinating characters, a sense of place so real you find yourself slapping mosquitoes, and ingenuous, complex plots. Don't miss it.

It helps me to undetstand my self better and find may wy bag home. It would be good to have this book translated in german. I would sell it many times in my bookstore. How can I order as al seller?

It helps me to undetstand my self better and find may wy bag home. It would be good to have this book translated in german. I would sell it many times in my bookstore. How can I order as al seller?

Explore the richness and depths of Kansas as never before in "The Nature of Kansas Lands", presented by Beverley Worster (Editor), with the assistance and support of Donald Worster (Foreward), Elizabeth Schultz (Essays), Kelly Kindscher,(Ecosystem facts), and with photographs by Edward C. Robison III and Kyle Gerstner. "The Nature of Kansas Lands" is a visually stimulating masterpiece that is both informed and informative. Carefully designed to encourage Kansas residents to look beyond their backyards and fences and to invite visitors to explore the back roads of these memorable state, readers will learn about native flora and wildlife and witness the wild beauty and ecological complexity this state has to offer. Waterways, woodlands, grasslands, farmland and high plains are captured in stunning photographs with essays and sidebars accompany the interpretative essays with facts about wildlife and weather, forests and farming. A unique encounter with Kansas' natural beauty and a model of collaborative scholarship, "The Nature of Kansas Lands" is recommended for anyone wishing to know more about Kansas from a nature perspective and a welcome addition to both community and academic library collections.

Yes, Environonomy is a real word because I made it up and you just read it. Isaac Asimov got away with introducing such new words as "robotics", and "positronic". I applaud all efforts in humans trying to learn to appreciate the environment as more than just a place to drive all terrain vehicles. How about test driving Kansas "in your head" with this book, whose fantastic pictures and environmental knowledge (I checked, and at least one of the authors knows about plant taxonomy) will give you a quick education about the land around you.

This book fills a big gaping hole in economic history. There are probably hundreds of books on Nixon and Vietnam, China, and Watergate. But very few exist on his other policies, including his economic policies. This is especially strange considering that his Administration presided over the final destruction of the gold standard, first sustained budget deficits, and the beginning of the Great Recession of 1970s.

Thus, this book is extremely useful. Almost month-by-month it describes the swinging pendulum of booms and busts that resulted from Nixon's economic mismanagement and the world economy's response to it. This is a very thorough work, meticulously documented. The author carefully documents endless cases of sacrifice of economic policies to blatantly short-term political goals.

It's also a good narrative, it weaves all the facts and explanation together, and it's organized very well. I found it very easy to read and understand it. It sheds much light on the economic causes of all those strange events of the 1970s. It's also a great companion to a more general history of USA during those years.

Over the last decade or so, there has been a substantial rethinking of the Nixon presidency.... Until the appearance of Allen Matusow's new book, however, Nixon's economic policies had not received a similar reassessment. In a very readable and well researched exploration of Nixon's economics, Matusow makes a compelling case that Nixon held no principled position whatsoever and that his economic policies were overtly and explicitly driven by his attempts to create a new electoral majority.... The Nixon presidency, as seen through Matusow's account, becomes an excellent case study in public-choice economics and the failures of interventionism.Three major strengths of Matusow's book deserve special mention. First, he has made extensive use of archival materials that were inaccessible until recently. By using the presidential office files, Bob Haldeman's extensive notes, and the various books and recollections of Nixon's associates, he has assembled a large amount of material from a variety of sources to document various meetings and discussions in great detail. The result is a very ugly view of the politicization of economic policy that puts one in mind of the old saw about not wanting to know how sausages or laws are made....A second strength of the book, of special interest to economists, is Matusow's careful documentation of the role played by well-known economists in the Nixon administration. Arthur Burns, Herbert Stein, Paul McCracken, Milton Friedman, and others all have starring roles in the drama. Except Friedman, none of them presents an appealing picture. Matusow extensively documents the ways in which Nixon's economic advisors were quick to sacrifice principles, particularly free-market principles, for political expediency.... Matusow makes extensive use of Friedman's Newsweek columns to illustrate the ways in which Nixon's policies did not correspond with the Friedman's free-market, monetarist line....The book's third strength is Matusow's use of economics. In more than three hundred pages of analysis of Nixon's economics, I found very few places where Matusow made an obvious error of theory or history.... But in most cases he handles the economics nicely, especially in his discussions of inflation, where he keeps the behavior of the money supply always at the forefront, and the energy crisis, where he does a fine job of documenting the various government interventions that precipitated the crisis and the horrendous policy mistakes that exacerbated it.... Matusow deserves particular praise for his discussion of Bretton Woods and the gold window, in which he deals with some complicated issues in international monetary economics and does a good job of rendering them comprehensible....Matusow has carefully and cogently documented Nixon's use of the instruments of power in pursuit of his own political goals and illuminated the disastrous results (double-digit inflation and the worst recession since the 1930s, not to mention a legacy of interventionism that has continued to the present) that Nixon's economics engendered. Matusow's book, though not couched in such terms, is an excellent case study in public-choice economics and is recommended to students of public choice and recent U.S. economic history.

I saw his work at a Chicago exposition and then bought the book and one of his photographs,(the cover photo in fact) The photographs are awe inspiring and eerily detached from the subject matter. Much like a Rothko painting, the photographs turn real fires into an abstract division line between earth and sky. It is as if we have stepped into a different world where darkness and flames are the norm. Buy this book!

Having followed Larry Schwarm's carrer for the past decade his FIRE imagery produces a photographic essay that can be described as apocalyptic and rebirth. The sweeping imagery with different timed exposures produces a surreal view of controlled fire in the Flint Hills. Having recently met Mr. Schwarm and seeing his large scale imagery I came away with the feeling of seeing a master artist and his canvases. The emotion of his images remind me of Chuck Close, Diane Arbus, Tom Baril and Robert Mapplethorpe - all different in context but emotional charged with its simplicity.

A well-known author once commented, "You can't go home again." A valid observation, in a sense, but I contend that Deryl Leamng did go home again, as exhibited in his book, and discovered himself.

The book affords the reader not only a trip down Dr. Leaming's "memory lane", but provides incredible insight into the framework of the times. The reader is drawn into the carefree, unsophisticated lifestyle of the author's early years growing up in a small, southwestern Kansas town. We follow him through humble beginnings fraught with tragedy and significant change. Yet, with all the disorder in his young life there is never any indication of resentment or reproach. Quite the contrary, we read about happy-go-lucky times spent with family and friends who appeared to alleviate most of the hardships.

Throughout the book are glimpses of events within the immediate locale as well as the big world "out there somewhere" and how they were relevant in the life of the author. Dr. Leaming begins each chapter with lyrics from songs of an appropriate time period which sets the mood for that reminiscence. He also cleverly inserts a myriad of items at the end of each chapter, which are pertinent to the indicated years, to give the reader a glimpse into the significant contrast of lifestyles then and now.

This "Tale" is definitely one person's story but it goes far beyond that by documenting for the reader the constancy, constitution, and courage of the people of those times in America. I have a feeling that the author took that "trip down memory lane" for self-contemplation and discovery. Very courageous of him!

My mom n' dad were dust-bowl babies, so I grew up tongue-lashed about being "spoiled" and how my ungrateful generation didn't know how good we had it.

So I stopped listening to mom n' dad's more-than-once-told tales of how tough life was during the Great Depression. Now, after reading this "One-Told Tale in Three-Part Harmony..." I think I get it. And (to rip off William Allen White) I know "what's the matter with Kansas."

It wasn't all doom, gloom and dust clouds way back in 1930s Kansas. Life was slower -- much sloooooower. People commuted by foot and time was measured in hours, not milliseconds. Health care wasn't terribly advanced, but American butts weren't super-sized, either -- and there were no diseases of opulence like bulimia.

And Kansans weren't whining about abortion clinics or joining the local militia -- they were busy trying to survive. A liberal Democrat named FDR drew their appreciation and "big-government" was almost a term of endearment. The author brings all this into a new light and gives a deeper meaning to today's well-worn phrase of the moment, "family values" -- that when times are hard, we survive by our love for one another.

But this book is not a political rant, it's a memoir, penned (apparently) by someone who lived the tale, and whose heart was warmed (and sometimes hurt) by manifold moments of caring and generosity; moments which transcended the austerity of the Great Depression and the stark, wind-baked plains of Kansas.