University of Missouri Books

"Walking on Ice" is a collection of nine short stories about women who place themselves in dangerous situations. These are women who like the "bad boys" and who like to live on the edge. Hubbard's characters are real, living, 3-D women----women that we have all known. You will find yourself yelling at the characters: "No! Don't go there!" or "No! Don't do that!" or "No! Don't go with that man!" Just like in those late-night horror flicks where you can't believe the woman goes downstairs, alone, unarmed, in the dark, to explore a noise and doesn't have the good sense to turn on a light----that is the same "edge-of-your-seat" feeling you get while immersed in Hubbard's short stories. I, for one, cannot wait for her next collection to be published.

Dabney Stuart, among our finest poets over the course of nearly a dozen collections, here continues his fine work as a fiction writer. Harkening back to his previous collection of stories, SWEET LUCY WINE, this new book includes a novella and three stories continuing the tale of the Random family and people in the family orbit.

When I hear that fiction is poetic, I assume that means it is written in fancy prose and contains little narrative action. Stuart's fiction is poetic in all the best senses--highly compressed, vivid in scene and description, exquisitely written--but with a concurrent eye toward the deep exploration of character. A reader leaves THE WAY TO COBBS CREEK having come to know Mark Random, his brother, his parents and grandparents, and their wildly commingled histories in the same way that a beloved neighbor is known, through stories woven together over time, intimate in detail, rich in resonance.

The title novella will remind you of A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT, as indeed the whole collection will, because of the web woven by fishing throughout the tale, because of the familial complexity, and because of the stylish prose. But this is family done Southern, a turn more lavish and gothic, and the result is even more powerful emotionally.

Okay, the title does invite parody (What Good is Journalism? Answer; Not much.) But in fact, the book clearly demonstrates why our democracy can't get along without journalism and provides considerable evidence to support that contention. The writers also invite citizens into the conversation, suggesting ways that news organizations and consumers can work together to foster the journalism our society needs to function. I'd also add that it's a good read from talented and accomplished writers. And your friends who are constantly complaining about the "mainstream media"? Give it to them for Christmas.

The author Richard Lundquist uses a symphony of words to bring this collection of short stories together like magic. It reveals truth and realities of hardships endured by many during this period of society. I look forward to seeing this author produce more work in the future.

This book is extremely interesting. The pictures and graphs truly enhance the manuscripts readibility. It is a great read, especially for anyone who is familiar with the upper south or has a true love for the natrual world. Two thumbs up!

This is the standard book on the lead and zinc mines of the TriState area, meaning the area where Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma come together. Gibson was a professor at the University of Oklahoma and was originally from the area. I suspect this was his doctoral dissertation, based on the date. It is based both on documents, such as mining reports, and interviews he conducted with miners about 1950.

It has all the factual information about the mines you could ever want. It is so thorough that no one has ever felt the need to go back and redo the overall story of the mines, though there are books about other aspects of the mines, such as the strike of 1935 or the miner's health. Dr. Gibson died about twenty years ago.

When this book was written the mines were still operating, though starting to wind down. Today the U.S. government is still spending millions to clean up this area from the heavy metals left by the milling and smelting process, and the threat to the water left by the underground mining.

Gibson's sympathies are clearly with the miners and the Quapaw Indians whose land the mines are on, but he also viewed the mines as the inevitable progress of the business system in the United States and had great admiration for the skill, strength, and courage of the miners and mining engineers.

I have read several of Dr. Gibson's other books as well, and he writes very well, but readers should be aware that he is not that interested in amusing stories about the miner and the mule and such, or really in individual stories. He is more interested in systems and institutions, so if you want a book of funny stories about miners getting drunk and falling into mines, this is not the book for you.

This book will leave you in awe of how hard people worked to make a basic living as recently as the 1950s.

William Adair Bernoudy, Architect will hold special significance for the residents of St. Louis as well as for any following the architectural legacy of Frank Lloyd Wright: it provides almost 300 color photos and almost thirty floor plans exploring the work of William Bernoudy, a leading advocate of Wright's style. An outstanding collection of examples.

William Clark, one half of the famous Lewis and Clark duo who crossed the continent to the Pacific, became one of the most important figures in antebellum America as an Indian agent, Missouri Territorial Governor, and Superintendent of Indian Affairs. His life provides a prism into the racial tensions prevalent in his day. More importantly, he is the central figure in Indian-white relations for nearly three decades and signed more treaties with Indian nations than any other American.

Collections strong in women's issues and literary history will find Writing The Pioneer Woman to be a very fine college-level reference which focuses on a series of autobiographical texts both published and private examining the writing of domestic life on the American frontier. From records of recipes to descriptions of domestic chores, this examination argues that the texts contain important examples of emigration patterns and experiences as well as domestic history.

The book describes how the Republcians in the late forties and early fifties used the accusations of treason and appeasement of the Soviet Union at Yalta by FDR to discredit the New Deal and to claim that no negotiations with the Soviet Union was possible. However, Yalta only recognized the facts on the ground in Eastern Europe since the Red Army had already liberated and occupied Eastern Europe including Poland and the only way the U.S. would have been able to drive back the Soviets would be through another World War.

Yalta is still blamed by many conservatives for the creation of a Communist bloc in Europe and even today those who advocate negotiations with hostile states are accused of appeasement.