Kansas Books

Get ready to laugh. Or to cry.
To be amused and to be amazed.

For 36 years, legendary radio host Mike Murphy gave Kansas City everything he had. And Kansas City loved everything he had to give.

Mike was one of the country's last great local radio heroes, the guys who began in the fifties as disc jockeys, became part of a city or town, came to know its people and its places and made it their own. They were unique, they were funny, they were passionate. And, as the song goes, they did it their way.

He started the city's famed St. Patrick's Day Parade, he initiated the annual Cattle Drive, he played a major part in the growing success of the yearly Salvation Army Christmas Charity Drive and he was the founding father of the infamous Odd Squad.

Mike pulled us all together. He united us and made us feel part of something bigger than ourselves. He boosted our morale, raised our spirits and lifted our pride. Every morning, every day.

Most people have ten or twelve amazing stories that have happened to them in their lives. Mike has hundreds. People were always telling him he should write a book... so he did!

You may have heard of military courts-martial, which in U.S. practice have evolved into something parallel to other U.S. courts, with independent judges and defense counsel, rules of evidence and procedure, military courts of appeal, and rooted in case law and applicable Constitutional law. The tribunals -- "military commissions" -- were different: an extraordinary and special proceeding with none of those guarantees, and, until 9/11, a freak wartime event last seen in WWII (Mr. Fisher's recent and excellent "Nazi Saboteurs on Trial" addresses one such case). Now the Bush Administration has revived the military commissions and this book is a timely (mid-2005) re-telling of the history and practice of these tribunals. I've written and researched on this topic and find Mr. Fisher's book is possibly the best single volume on the subject. His prose is clear to the layperson, he is brilliant in putting the tribunals in context, and is quick to find parallels in the detention (WWII + post-9/11) case law.

(Postscript: the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, June 29, 2006, was directly on point to military commissions and Presidential powers. The book is still very worth reading in light of possible attempts in Congress to address the issue.)

Joan Frank's first novel, Miss Kansas City (a wonderfully ironic title), is a masterpiece. I read her award-winning short story collection, Boys Keep Being Born, and loved her writing so much that I've been waiting for another book from her. Now, with this one, I am even more awed at her range. Along with the drama of love and loss and resilience (that quality - that almost infinite adaptability - which, uniquely, makes us human), she leaves us with a wealth of insight and of wisdom. She's wonderfully good at delineating what she calls the "unconscious male" (in spite of her love for those pesky trouble-makers). Yet she allows us into the inner spaces of both her male and female characters, each caught up in love (or obsession) and yearning. She opens us up to the gulf of loneliness within each isolated sex. She keeps us on our toes, surprises us. Then, reaching beyond the personal, she gives us wholly believable scenes of California's takeoff into its heady new computerized world, along with, already, intimations of its collapse. She's the true chronicler of our twentieth-century nation-state and of the human soul.

This was the first book ever published on the Irish in Missouri (1984). It covers the entire state, but the main focus is on Kansas City, St. Louis, and the Irish Wilderness. This book is great for historians and for genealogists. There is a new edition in soft cover with added and updated pages (264 pages), The original title was "Irish Settlers on the American Frontier". The title of the new edition is Missouri Irish and is just now being released.

Maurice Schwalm is famous in the midwest for his approach to investigating hauntings, crop circles and psychic phenomena. His research methods are intense and get into areas where other researchers and authors do not tread. His extensive collection of psychic photography includes his own photographs and those of other photographers who realized they had "unknowns" in their pictures. Most people have had experiences they can not explain, and this book is a good reference guide to variations in manifestations. And should you dare to investigate, the locations are given.

Mountain Sisters: From Convent To Community In Appalachia
This is a great book!This books shows you can do anything if you put your mind to it.Tells how these women over came the struggles of being nuns in the mountains of Appalachia.They left the convent knowing that they could somehow still help people and serve God without losing who they were.These ladies still continue to help to this day.

Author Howard Ball provides us with a detailed analysis of the June 1964 murders of three civil rights workers (James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner) in Philadelphia, Mississippi. The author effectively sets the scene for what the volunteer workers can expect as they prepare to travel to Mississippi to register blacks to vote. Most Mississippians view them as interlopers who have no business upsetting their way of life. Michael Schwerner was the one the KKK targeted for elimination. The other two individuals just happened to be with him when the crime was committed. The racist judge meted out only perfunctory penalities considering the seriousness of the crime. The story is left undone because a mistrial was declared for the one who planned the crime, Edgar Ray "Preacher" Killen, because the one lone holdout was a woman who declared she "could never convict a preacher." In that case she should never have been on the jury in the first place. She has since said she "was sorry to let him go." This is a first rate book, and the author's follow up entitled "Justice in Mississippi" is about the June of 2005 murder conviction of Edgar Ray Killen.

Benze has managed to demonstrate important connections between Mrs. Reagan's experience as actor and her time as first lady. While other biographies of Mrs. Reagan of course mention her action experience, Benze's approach is unique in integrating the two.

He also has used both interviews and primary source material from the Reagan library to supplement his familiarity with other biographies of Mrs. Reagan.

An excellent read.

A must have and must read for any scholar of Native American politics, law and culture. This book allows any scholar to understand the impact that Deloria has had on Native American Studies. David Wilkins' essay is precise and opens avenues of legal exploration that will have an effect on the rights of tribal nations.

This outstanding book consists of 304 pages which include 188 illustrations (107 in color). It is the product of a dozen writers, five artists, and 27 of the best natural history photographers in Kansas. You can't go wrong with NATURAL KANSAS