Texas Books

Well-written book that shows how early Arab immigrants integrated into the American society. We Americans need to know all the facts about Arabs before we judge them and stereotype them. Read Arab Voices Speak to American Hearts. It will help you better understand the Arab mind.

This labor of love documents the experience of Arabs who emigrated to Worcester, Massachusetts between 1880 and 1915. The author, a third-generation Worcester Arab-American, has interviewed immigrants from Lebanon, Syria and Palestine; she dis-cusses their lives and their connections with fellow Arab immigrants in the United States and South America, particularly Brazil. She also highlights the political and eco-nomic factors that brought Arabs to America and led many of them to stay, even after they had met their goal of earning enough to prosper in their homelands. Interviewees, most in their 80's and 90's, are succinctly quoted about subjects including their neighborhoods, work, traditions and education. The author offers evidence aplenty of how hard work and creativity enabled Arabs to put down roots in America, to the bene-fit of the community and the country. APC

I had to look for a long time for a copy of this novel when I wanted to read it last year; it's fantastic that it's been brought back into print in the US and abroad. The success of McG's recent novels Amongst Women and By the Lake/That They May Face the Rising Sun casts a soft light upon his earlier fiction from the 1960s, but this novel is no romantic landscape.

In the bogs of west-central Ireland, a policeman cycles about pretending to do his duty while his wife takes care of the children and waits to find out whether she has a terminal disease. Told in a powerful voice largely from within her consciousness, the narrative style shows amazing assurance for a then emerging writer. The last scene from her point-of-view ranks in my estimation with Joyce's closing of "The Dead."

I heard McG introduced at a reading as the greatest Irish author from the second half of the 20th (and 21st?) century. This is no hyperbole. While his reticence means he is not the showman that Seamus Heaney is, and while his oblique commentary acknowledges the trauma of the past Irish century rather than exploiting it like many of his lesser contemporaries, McG's dignity in the face of 1960s censorship (for subsequent work) commands respect and a renewal of interest in his entire body of work. Read this story and you'll find the ebb of rural Ireland charted precisely.

The late John McGahern wrote incredibly poetic and beautiful novels set in his native country. The Barracks is about a middle-aged woman named Elizabeth Reegan who marries a widowed man with three children. A frustrated police officer with dreams of buying his own farm, and fulfilling the legacy of the Reegans, her husband is a man all but oblivious to Elizabeth and her needs. Already a widower, when he learns Elizabeth has breast cancer he can hardly bring himself to face the reality. When his first wife died his only thought was what a horror it was seeing her in the morgue. Any feelings of love or support are simply beyond him, leaving Elizabeth to deal with mortality on her own.

As she worsens, declining into death, Elizabeth is able to observe the family as an outsider. Already all but a ghost, she watches them go about their daily tasks while inside she's screaming with frustration, hoping for any bit of attention or kindness she doesn't dare ask for.

The Barracks is a heartbreaking novel, and a masterful one. McGahern gets inside the head of Elizabeth, expressing her plight with such empathy it's staggering. The prose is poetic and lyrical. I would even say it's flawless, and as perfect a work of fiction as I've ever read.

What a loss to literature, and to humanity, when McGahern died earlier this year, leaving behind him an award-winning body of fiction. There simply aren't enough contemporary writers out there like McGahern, more's the pity, but that's what made him stand out like a shining light while he was alive. Better to have written like an angel and then been lost than never to have written like an angel at all.

This is a great book, Texas has so many great buildings built during this time, formost being the UT campus, the Rice Campus and Fair Park Dallas. This book is exhaustive and the images are beautiful. Anyone, who has a love for architecture should have this book, not just those of us who love Texas.

With this entertainingly written and well organized book, you can settle down to painlessly learn about Texas history and architecture. Or have fun browsing.Look in the index to seek out the parts about favorite buildings in your town or city. Once you start, you'll have a hard time finding a place to stop. This wonderful book includes a zillion pictures of familiar and beloved structures, including *historic railroad stations, *the campuses of UT, Rice, SMU, Texas Tech, etc.*the office buildings, department stores, hotels, movie theaters, banks, and other commercial structures that mark the downtowns of the state's big and small cities, *city halls, courthouses, post offices, etc.*churches, houses, roadside gas stations & motels. This volume includes photos of fine buildings from Galveston to El Paso, and even from my smalltown hometown of Seguin in between (maybe your hometown has some entries, too).It also describes the identifying features of the various architectural styles (Romanesque, Mission Revival, Art Deco, etc.) in a way that a layman can quickly understand. It helps us appreciate the quality of what was been built in our cities and towns in the first half of the 20th century.

This is a comprehensive and intelligent study of the work of John Staub, who designed many of the most notable structures in Houston (both domestic architecture and commercial structures). He designed an incredible number of buildings, and not only in Houston, but in other parts of the country. For a student of architecture, and for someone interested in the history of Houston, this book is a must.

As someone who grew up admiring Mr. Staubs talent, I am so thankful that Mr. Barnstone created this perfect book. It does a wonderful job of giving scholarly text and extensive photographs of the structures. The book leaves no doubt that Mr. Barnstone was a great admiror of this singular architect. The book gives floor plans as well has historical archival text on homes. He gives most weight and time to Mr. Staubs most famous building, most notable Bayou Bend. The reader marvels at Mr. Staubs command of different mediums and styles. His buildings, no matter how stylistically diffent, all have his touch of understated elegance. This book is a must have for anyone who admires great residental architecture. Mr. Staub was one of the great residental architects and Houston was lucky to call him her own.

Family of 4 killed in Ohio plane crash.

BUCYRUS, Ohio - A plane crashed in a field, killing four members of a Texas family and raining debris on a nearby apartment complex, authorities said.

No injuries were reported on the ground after the crash Sunday evening about 60 miles north of Columbus, state highway patrol Lt. Tony Bradshaw said.

Paul and Lillian Martin, of Austin, Texas, and their two children had been visiting relatives in Oklahoma and was flying to Searsmont, Maine, where the couple owned property, the highway patrol said. All four were killed on impact.

The crash site is about a mile from the Bucyrus-Crawford County Airport. But there was no sign of a distress call or any contact with air traffic control before the crash, Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory said Monday.

Damage to the Indian Creek Apartments, the complex hit by debris, was minor, authorities said. Residents said they heard the plane's engine sputtering, followed by an explosion.

"When you're listening to something like that, you don't even think to take cover," resident Chris Beck said. "If it had gone a little further, it would have hit the apartments."

The cause of the crash was not immediately known. Light rain was reported in the area when the crash happened about 7:10 p.m. National Transportation Safety Board and FAA investigators were heading to the scene, Bradshaw said.

Authorities said Paul Martin was 49 and his wife 45, and identified their children as Kitanna, 10, and Shawn, 11. In Searsmont, Maine, town clerk Kathy Hoey said the Martins often spent time there during the summer. He was involved in marketing, and his wife was a marine archaeologist who wrote a book on Venetian ships, she said.

Rotund merchant ships. Sleek warships. Humble fishing boats and sturdy lighters. Pleasure craft and gondolas. The harbor of Medieval and Renaissance Venice thronged with watercraft. Ships and boats were unquestionably vital to the Venetian Maritime Republic, and her ships were of extreme importance historically. Venice, settled in the fifth century in the lagoons of the Adriatic Sea, was always a maritime nation. Three factors gave Venice advantages over other medieval trading city-states: the city's location, governmental policies, and the skills of her inhabitants. Nearly the entire population of Venice was involved in maritime trade in one way or another. Venice became a key trading agent between the European and Mediterranean world market and her citizens made a fortune. Many details as to the nature of their watercraft, however, have yet to be well understood. Three forms of evidence potentially fill in the void: archaeological remains of ships or boats, written documents concerning vessels, and artistic representations of watercraft. Remains of Venetian ships and boats are scant, and written records, rarely complete in their information. Excavations in the region have revealed only a few small boats, two merchant ships, and a galley, yet this limited sample of the ships and boats of Venice offers the base on which to build. A more accurate understanding of Venetian maritime history is achieved only through integrating all forms of evidence.

Pictorial documents constitute a unique corpus of data, invaluable information for anyone studying the history of ships and boats, yet these documents are rarely adequately studied. I had the pleasure of living and working in Venice with the goal of discovering and documenting maritime art from the region. Maritime themes prevail in the culture and legends important to the area. Ships and boats abound in Venetian mosaics, frescoes, paintings, sculptures, manuscript illuminations, technical treatises and graffiti. For example, the relics of St. Mark (who became patron saint and symbol of Venice) were "pirated" away from Alexandria, hidden from the Muslim customs officials in a basket of pork on board the ship. This story was frequently depicted in Venetian art, and these images show us what Venetians conceptualized when they thought of "a merchant ship". This book, with 158 illustrations, is full of interesting and beautiful maritime art, and offers intriguing details to ponder. The book appeals at one level to the layman interested in archaeology, ship history and art history, but has the substance (index, bibliography), detail and depth to satisfy the researcher.

No fashion magazine was more popular or had a larger impact upon the clothing styles of American women than 'Vogue'. Part of the Texas Tech University Press 'Costume Society of American' series, "As Seen In Vogue: A Century Of American Fashion In Advertising" by fashion expert and historian Daniel Delis Hill has drawn from this seminal fashion periodical's more than 600 fashion adds for a century-long overview beginning with the magazine's founding in 1893 through ten decades to 1993. Superbly illustrated throughout with black-and-white photos of advertisements showcasing the changes in fashion styles and the growing sophistication of the American Fashion Industry down through the years, "As Seen In Vogue" also discusses and documents the evolution witnessed within its pages of the evolution in American fashion, American society, and American culture. A fascinating and specialized history, "As Seen In Vogue" is a seminal and unique work of scholarship that makes it a critically important, informed and informative contribution recommended for personal, professional, academic, and community library reference collections and American Fashion History supplemental reading lists.

In the origins of the great American middleclass consumer market in the 1890s, "a symbiotic, tripartite relationship between clothing mass production, fashion journalism, and mass-media advertising became firmly established." The internationally-known women's fashion magazine Vogue put this new symbiosis to work to become the leading magazine in its field for more than a century. In the line of Godey's Ladies Book and Harper's Bazaar of the mid 1800s, Vogue published its first issue on December 17, 1892. By focusing entirely on fashion, it differentiated itself from the popular Ladies Homes Journal, which covered fashion only as one of many topics. Since its start over a century ago, Vogue has held its leading position by mirroring changing tastes in fashion by informative articles as well as its polished, sophisticated ads. The ads particularly, the subject of this book, have become a subject of interest in themselves.

Simply glancing at the ads running chronologically roughly by decades displays a social history of women's changing tastes in fashion. The buttoned-up look of the late Victorian era embellished by ruffles and flounces became the sparer, yet still essentially button-up look of the early 1900s seen in pictures by Christie and other illustrators. With the 1920s and '30s, bright colors and patterns mimicking art deco came into fashion. And in this era too, sport clothing became a significant vein of women's clothing. In the more liberated times of the 1960s and later, women's clothing became more revealing while becoming more casual; and it became more varied in incorporating the ideas of foreign designers and the elements of a multicultural, internationally-oriented society.

Attention to the settings of the ads and the poses of the models puts the fashions into the context of a period's surrounding social attitudes, image of women, and women's own assumptions and aims. One sees the empty backdrops of the late Victorian and early 1900s become detailed domestic, workplace, and outdoor scenes.

The text points out and comments on the numerous illustrations; with captions with many individual illustrations like brief annotations providing additional points and information. Author Hill has worked in the fashion industry as a creative director of fashion photography, among other positions.

I really enjoy a good mystery. A real good "who-done-it". A story that, as you read, is fun to guess who the guilty party might be! I found The Austin Fires to be one of these types of books and I really enjoyed reading it. I look forward to reading the next Stormy Winters Mystery. So hurry out with your next book S. A. Slack, your fans are anxiously waiting!

I am always searching for, and am in support of, new woman writers on the market. This is the first novel S.A. Slack has had published and I was one of the first to own it. This piece is creative and entertaining with a suspense that kept me turning the pages just to see what would happen next. It's wonderful to see new authors do this great! Keep up the good work!

I thought I had all the books on Austin! This book is great. I love the series, and the photos are terrific. All the important sites are included.

As someone who lived in Austin in the '60's and returned recently, the comparison of landmarks 'then and now' was a wonderful stroll through Austin's memorable sites. We liked the book so much that we gifted others with it - it's a very popular conversation book which all our friends have enjoyed.

Jessie is the only girl in a house full of Brand men. When Lash Monroe comes to work on the ranch & as deputy sheriff to Garrett, Jessie takes a shine to him. But how can an only girl find time to get closer to Lash with all those brothers of her keep threatening Lash if he misbehaves with Jessie?

This is a great story which had me in stitches in parts. I can't wait to get onto the rest of the series. Next one is Wes's story in "Badlands bad boy".

A simple equation yet it works: bad virgin=good book. You don't need to be an engineer, however, to comprehend this fast paced novel. It stunningly portrays what life in the old west must have been like. The author uses vivid imagery to bring the characters to life. YEE-ha go read it cowgirls

Tess Baron at first seems like an uptight business woman with no feelings for anyone other than herself. But in this story, as in life, not everything is as it seems. Nick Trejo suddenly appears and nothing is the same for Tess again. Tess has never known love in her life, so for her life is about her work and the family business. Tess is drilling for oil that could bring in millions of dollars, but at the same time she may cost Nick his family's fortune and his grandfathers dream. At first, Tess is unimpressed with Nick and his plea for her to stop drilling, but she soon learns Nick will pull out all the stops to convince her to do the right thing. Nick is unaware of the price that Tess will have to pay in order to help him. Even though Nick and Tess seem to be at a impass they are still deeply attracted to each other. Nick and Tess give us a story of love, courage, faith, and any other emotion that you can think of. This is a great start to the series.

Back cover reads:
LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT
Tess Baron knew she was in trouble the second she laid eyes on the mysterious--and oh-so-sexy--stranger. Why had Nick Trejo suddenly appeared, asking her for a private meeting? And what was it about Nick that made Tess long to be in his arms...?
Nick was on a quest to discover his family's fortune, and he wasn't going to let some beautiful heiress stand in the way--even if he was falling in love with her. Or could the treasure he'd been searching for his entire life be less precious than the treasure he'd just found--Tess's love?