Texas Books

Sherman brings history to life, and paints a scene the way an artist would approach a canvas. Perhaps the best of modern Western lore. Sherman is at his best in this one. A compelling story, with dimensional characters you hate to leave

In a way only Jory Sherman can fulfill, he takes you on an incredible journey, through a raging storm in the Gulf of Mexico, to settle the vast, arid, Apache stalked land of Texas. A fantastic read!

After reading Grass Kingdom, I waited for this addition to Sherman's series on a historical look at the early Texas years and found it to be another great Jory Sherman saga. The character of Martin Baron and his effort to build his own western kingdom was great. The flavor of Spain the character Miguel Fuentes added was wonderful seasoning.

Growing up in California, I became a Texan as soon as I knew better. Having missed all of the Texas history and trivia growing up, it was pure delight to read "The Bathroom Book of Texas Trivia". It's a gem for those with little nuggets of time to snatch a quick read. From the snippet about the "Pulpwood Queens of East Texas" to discovering how the Lone Star became Texas' state seal to "The Games People Play", it's a fun and informative read.

Often hilarious, intriguing, or just plain interesting fun quick facts about the Lone Star state. If you know someone who plans to visit or move to Texas (or recently arrived), this will orient them. It will also delight Texas natives and Texas ex-patriates who get homesick. Highly recommended.

I found the "Bathroom Book of Texas Trivia" a very enjoyable read. As a native Illinoisan I learned much about my adopted state of Texas. If you are a fan of trivia, or just want to learn more about the Lone Star State, you will enjoy reading this book.

Go discussion of the non main stream battle of the War Between the State well research.

Jim Lynch

I really enjoyed Alberts' well researched account of the climactic battle that doomed Southern ambitions in New Mexico and Confederate ambitions in the West. The book is well written and easy to read. Alberts is very familiar with the battlefields and uses maps to show troop positions and movements in the battles in Glorieta Pass. The book includes a good introduction of the campaign and troop movements to the area as well as the aftermath and southern retreat to Southern New Mexico. An Order of Battle and extensive end notes are helpfull and he even gives brief accounts of the fates of the major players in the campaign.

Before taking the battlefield tour at Pecos National Historical Park, I read the other book on the battle because this one had no reviews. The park ranger recommended this one as having a lot of detail, and he was correct. Edrington and Taylor's book is good for a quick once over and for non-specialists. However, if you want to read about this battle in detail and/or you read a lot of Civil War books, this is the book to read. For non-specialists, he provides reviews of basic army organization and weaponry.

The author lives in the area and has spend many years researching the battle and the field including locating the sites of specific actions by the use of metal detectors and analysis of the materials found.

The book concentrates on the two-day battle and its immediate aftermath which have to be considered a Union victory. Although the Union forces retreated at the end of the both days, they were not driven off the field. Plus, a Union flank maneuver put these forces onto the lightly guarded Confederate wagon train, which the Union forces proceeded to destroy. With the destruction of their train in this poor area, the Confederate advance into New Mexico was effectively ended. The final chapter reviews the subsequent careers of the major participants.

The endnotes are excellent, and the maps are standard format (unlike in the other book).

This collection of stories was wonderful. Every story was different and the book features a wide range of stories and emotions. I felt transported to a different time and place.

This is a great collection of stories ranging from family tales to folktales.Among my favorite were:John Henry Faulk's "Mrs. Fanny Rollins and her fake rubber bosoms," an old celtic legend of Finn McCoul is quiet but very powerful, Jay Stailey's stories jumped off the page with humor as did Finley Stewart's four offerings.Sometimes sad, often wildly funny the book gives us a glimpse of who we all are as human beings. My husband and I keep it by the bed for a quick reread f a story every now and then.Where can I find more like this?

I found this a WONDERFUL book! The stories are new and great. Perfect for adults and children, these are great stories to read to your kids before they go to sleep. But after they do, you'll keep reading for you!

James Griffin has launched a new Texas Ranger series (although related to his previous one) featuring Ranger Cody Havlicek, who is called on to investigate a series of murders in the Big Bend country. This is a little closer to whodunnit territory, with Havlicek and the reader both trying to figure out who is behind the killings and why. As with Griffin's previous novels, this one has action a-plenty, with gunfights and at least one literal cliffhanger. It is a western as they used to be done, not an "adult" western with sex scenes added but what was once seen as a traditional western, the kind it's hard to find these days.

Griffin introduces Blawcyzk's successor, Cody Havlicek in a rousing mystery/adventure yarn. That's what Jim writes; Yarns. He's a whale of a storyteller, and they get better in plot and execution with each time out. (Although, I think this one was written before his latest Blawcyzk book) His characterization, plotting, pacing and dialogue improve by leaps and bounds. Confidence in his skills is more apparent with each book and it's a joy to behold from my standpoint as the constant reader. Even if Jim wasn't a member of this group, I would eagerly look for his books. They are that good and that enjoyable.
In Blawcyzk and Havlicek, Griffin has created characters that are more than just plot devices or genre shortcuts. They are living, breathing people that you care about. Little touches like going to church, praying, the constant mints for the horses, and not liking certain parts of the job yet realizing they have to be done, all add up to memorable characters that you look forward to encountering again.

BIG BEND DEATH TRAP Big Bend Death Trap: A Texas Ranger Cody Havlicek Story is a mystery story full of traditional Western action. The hero, Texas Ranger Cody Havlicek, is a God-fearing family man, loyal to his wife and son, but he is not afraid to use his fists and guns to bring justice to the far reaches of the state of Texas.

Tommy Mashburn, a young man Cody rescues on the way to his assignment, makes a wonderful sidekick for the Ranger.

BIG BEND DEATH TRAP will keep you on the edge of your seat as Cody, Tommy, and even Cody's horse Yankee battle against tremendous odds in their efforts to find and bring to justice a gang of diabolical criminals terrorizing the Big Bend Region of Texas.

BIG BEND DEATH TRAP is highly recommended reading for just about anyone.

Finally a book that is an easy read and answers questions about the area of Texas known as the Big Bend. This book takes you several steps beyond the Roadside Geology of Texas book. The book has excellent maps, is well organized, and has many photographs to help you get your orientation. I also recommend a companion book that he has written about the Davis Mountains area.

I love this book! In Chapter I, Setting the Scene, MacLeod provides a concise geologic history, explaining difficult concepts in language easily accessible to the layman. The following chapters interpret the landscapes along various local routes. The maps, photos and sketches nicely complement the text. I like to read the appropriate chapter the night before a road trip and then take the book along in the car. It certainly adds interest to the trip.

Use Big Bend Vistas to get an overview of the region or just to look up that mountain that catches your eye. Easy to read descriptions of the geology with lots of pictures, illustrations and a glossary to help the average person understand and appreciate the landscape yet detailed enough for the more geologically astute. Vistas makes the trip to Big Bend National Park more fun!

I am in the process of reading the book. It is very interesting. I just bought a Black Mouth Cur puppy and the book was recommended on the American Black Mouth Cur website.

I grew up in East Texas and have lived around the Big Thicket all my life. As a child, I heard my grandfather and his brother tell tales of the bears and "panthers" they had hunted in the early 1900's. I picked this book up one afternoon and began to skim it, and I was hooked within minutes. I couldn't put it down. In the 60's and 70's the authors interviewed many older residents of the Big Thicket area, allowing the old-timers to simply relate their rememberances, from the 1860's on up into the oil boom and logging days of the early 20th century. The dialect is distinct, and the authors do a good job of conveying the pronunciation. The stories these people tell of the hardships and yet the wonder of living in a true wilderness is simply fascinating. If you have any interest in the Big Thicket area of Texas, or if you just enjoy tales of life in the "wild and wooly days", then you will certainly enjoy these stories. It's truly a wonder that these folks survived the hard life and wild animals! My wife and I were so enthralled with these stories,that we found time a few days later to drive over and visit some of the remaining thicket, near Saratoga, TX.

Collaboratively compiled and co-edited by lifelong naturalists Campbell and Lynn Loughmiller, Big Thicket Legacy is a compendium of engaging and informative anecdotes about life and living in the Big Thicket country, which is a nearly impassable area of Texas territory that only a few pioneers dared to brave. In those days, only the heartiest of individuals and families could call a place within the heart of the Big Thicket home; their tales have become a part of Texas folklore, and in Big Thicket Legacy are preserved to available to the general reading public, thereby recounting a very special experienced wisdom for new generations of Texans.

Biochemical Individuality was first published by Dr. Roger J. Williams in 1956. It has just been reissued with a new introduction by Jeffrey S. Bland, Ph.D. Dr. Bland explains that Dr. Williams was the first to recognize all humans differ biochemically from others. He says that Dr. Williams was also the first to recognize that "nutritional status can influence the expression of genetic characteristics."

Dr. Williams conducted his own studies, as well as drawing on the work of others, to show that each of us is different. One chapter describes differences in anatomy, outlining how even such vital organs as hearts and stomachs vary in size, shape, and physical location from person to person.

The chapter on pharmacology explains how, even though the chemistry of each is known, drugs effect people in different ways, due to differences in body chemistry. That's why what works for one person doesn't necessarily work for another.

Dr. Williams says that "while the same physical mechanisms and the same metabolic processes are operating in all human bodies, the structures are sufficiently diverse [that] the sum total of all the reactions taking place in one individual's body may be very different from those taking place in the body of another individual of the same age, sex, and body size."

His observations led Dr. Williams to theorize that each individual also had unique nutritional needs, and that determining and meeting those needs would help combat disease.

Although written in academic language, Biochemical Individuality is of interest all readers who recognize "there is no such thing as a truly 'normal' individual" and that people have "unique biochemical profiles based upon their own genetic structure, nutrition, and environment."

Roger Williams, a professor of Medicine at the University of Texas - Austin, wrote this book about the differences that pathologists and other doctors routinely find in human beings.

Unless you have a rather uncommon interest in anatomical or biochemical trivia, the literal contents of this book will probably not interest you. After all, how many people are interested by how many different stomach shapes there are, and how common they are? But if you are -at all- interested by medicine, and the more philosophical questions that medicine raises, the implications of the contents of this book will probably be of great interest to you, and quite likely prompt you to reconsider some of your beliefs and understanding of medicine.

Williams' exhaustive lists of all the differences in the human body is in stark contradiction to the reductionistic medical thinking, where diseases are often diagnosed by checklist-based symptom clusters and then treated with one size fits all "blockbuster" drugs. After having read, perhaps at times even slogged through, all the differences that Williams lists, you are left with no room to doubt that the differences among human beings are so great that medicine ought to be geared towards noting the differences among humans, and devising individualized treatment regimens that take advantage of these differences, rather than forcing human beings into "one size fits all" "production line" medicine, as often happens when medicine is reduced to standardized treatment algorithms that (sometimes) flowchart into one of a handful of "blockbuster" medications, based on studies reported by researchers oftentimes wearing the rosiest of sunglasses. If you base an endeavor on flawed or inadequate premises, the results of your efforts can only transcend these flaws through serendipitous (and unlikely) errors.

Medicine, as Hippocrates already wrote, is ultimately an art, and not a science; this book provides a timely and useful reminder of this fact of life to anyone with a true interest in or passion for medicine. Heartily recommended.

This is one of the most important books written in the history of nutrition. A must for everyone who wants to appreciate how one diet, one supplement regime, and one food pyramid do not fit all. We all have greatly differing needs, and Dr. Williams documents all of this eloquently and convincingly. This book should be read by everyone who cares about their health. It will make them realize that only when they understand their individual nutrition needs and meet them can they have optimal health. Thank you, Keats, for reprinting this timeless book!

Steve Hilty does a wonderful job of translating the results of published scientific papers into the language of the curious layman without compromising the fidelity of the original research. With a strong academic background, coupled with many years of field experience and a formidable talent for communication, he successfully transmits the joy of the natural historian and the excitement of the pioneering ornithologist.

The book consists of twenty essays on the ecology, behavioural ecology, biogeography and evolution of Neotropical birds, each based on three or four seminal scientific papers. The topics covered include flocking behaviour, species diversity, intra-tropical migration, seasonality, song, hummingbird foraging ecology, seed dispersal and much more. Many of the topics arose as answers to the questions posed to the author by fellow travellers, so they address a host of the main questions the curious naturalist will ask. The examples and original research come from all parts of the New World tropics making this book of direct relevance to those travelling anywhere in Latin America. Specific sites mentioned range from La Selva in northeastern Costa Rica to Manu in Amazonian Peru, and from Panama's Barro Colorado Island to the Oilbird Cave in eastern Venezuela. Species like the Yellow-rumped Cacique and Oilbird and key Neotropical groups like the Vultures, Hummingbirds, Antbirds, Tyrant Flycatchers, Manakins and Cotingas are treated in detail.

In sum, a great introduction to the biology and natural history of American tropical birds for those who are new to the region and a fascinating companion for tropical veterans. Whether your interest is birding, natural history or simply enriching your tropical travels, this book should be on your shelves - or, better still, in your backpack.

It is a shame that this book is out of print, because as more birders discover the wealth and happy confusion of birding in the tropics this book would find a ready audience. Birders who take their first trips to Central or South America step into an alien world, where the rules of the temperate zone do not apply.

Hilty's essays draw upon many years as a birding tour guide, kind of a "frequently asked questions" collection. He discusses answers to questions such as: Why do birds in the tropics migrate? Why are tropical birds often so colorful yet so hard to see? Why are tropical mixed flocks so large and varied (up to 50 or more species in a single foraging flock), and how can so many birds forage together? In the course of the essays, Hilty also provides a great deal of insight into tropical ecology. I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the tropics in general, and tropical birding in particular.

One might guess by the title of Steven Hilty's book _Birds of Tropical America_ that he has written an informative though dry field guide, one that lists a number of birds of Central and South America but is not really a book to sit down and read. In fact, Hilty has written an engaging and extremely interesting natural history work covering many aspects of neotropical bird behavior, breeding, and evolution and is one of the finest popular science books I have read in a while.

The book is organized into twenty different chapters, several illustrated with black and white drawings by artist Mimi Hoppe Wolf, and includes an extensive bibliography. Roughly half of the chapters deal with aspects of neotropical avian behavior and physiology that are applicable to most if not all of the region's birds, while the remainder deals with specific types of birds, such as antbirds, hummingbirds, and vultures. The focus is largely on birds of rainforests but Hilty also discusses birds of mountains, grasslands, and in one interesting chapter, islands of the Amazon River.

The first few chapters tackle common questions asked about tropical American birds, questions Hilty has encountered over his years as not only a researcher but as a leader of birding tours in Central and South America. For instance, why are so many tropical rainforest birds so spottily distributed when there appears to be many hundreds of square miles of suitable habitat? Hitly wrote that distribution patchiness is a basic structural component of tropical rainforests; in an area that might contain up to 500 bird species, a particular acre or so of forest will only contain 100 to 200 species. One answer to this question is the existence of microhabitats, areas perhaps not obvious to naturalists recently arrived from temperate latitudes, but quite obvious to the local fauna. Some birds are found only along the edges of tree fall openings, while others that live in the canopy avoid areas where the canopy is discontinuous with tree fall openings. Birds might be rare because of their place on the food chain (harpy eagles occur generally at low densities though might be widespread throughout neotropical rainforests), of the lower population densities of tropical birds (the populations of the most common Peruvian rainforests birds are one-tenth that of those in temperate forests), the secretive nature of many understory rainforest birds (making them appear rare), and the large territories of birds (when compared to temperate species). A later chapter adds additional information; Hilty noted the work of Jurgen Haffer, who proposed that during the Pleistocene epoch the rainforests of South America at times contracted into isolated units he called refugia and that this repeated forest breakup increased speciation and helped produce many often small and localized ranges of birds in South America. Another theory, proposed by among others biologist Angelo Capparella, noted the importance of the major rivers of the Amazon Basin, which fragment the ranges of many widespread species and can act as barriers to gene flow; in a later chapter, Hilty noted how big a barrier the river can be, at one spot in Colombia, nearly 2,000 miles from the mouth of the Amazon River, the river banks are nearly five miles apart, a huge barrier to many tropical species that scarcely like crossing even forest trails.

Interestingly, many tropical birds migrate. No, not the famous temperate-to-tropics-and-back-again migrations, but migrations within the tropics, often quiet migrations that only involve some species and an aspect of the neotropics that took researchers many years to discover. These are short-distance migrations, perhaps a few miles or a few hundred miles. The quetzal and the bellbird for instance are fruit-eaters that breed in mountain cloud forests during the drier months of the year, but migrate downslope during the rainy season in search of drier conditions and more fruit. Even lowland forest species migrate to seek concentrations of fruiting trees, while others migrate to take advantage of the short-lived and unpredictable seed crops of bamboo, or in areas south of the Amazon Basin, are fire-followers, seeking out recently burned grasslands for breeding.

In a chapter on why there are so many more species in the tropics than in temperate areas Hilty noted the many niches unique to the tropics, for example antbirds, follow the swarms of raiding army ants, which flush small prey for them to eat, while other birds follow monkeys or the large peccary herds for the same reason (the latter of which are followed by the nimble, roadrunner-like ground-cuckoos).

Hilty discussed hummingbirds in two chapters, noting not only the many different hummingbird niches (some are nectar thieves, poking holes on the outside of flowers to get nectar, not aiding the plant in pollination one bit, others are territorial, while still others forage over large areas) but that they even have different niches at different altitudes (wing length and body weight have a huge influence in the type of flight and behavior a hummingbird is capable of and as higher altitudes have less dense air and produce less lift, some species have different ecological niches at different altitudes).

A number of chapters focused or dealt with breeding behavior. One interesting discussion analyzed why males might cluster together in lek assemblages when they are so extremely competitive. The "hotspot" theory of Jack Bradbury argued that leks form in areas where females forage widely for food and the males have a good opportunity to catch the attention of these wide-ranging females, while the "hotshot" theory of Bruce Beeler and Mercedes Foster argues that the success of a few dominant males attracts the attention of less successful males, who bide their time and try to move up the hierarchy.

Other interesting topics include the flycatchers (part of a group of birds called suboscines) which have been among the few animal groups to colonize northwards with the appearance of the Panamanian landbridge and the influence of environment on song (different terrains affect song propagation in different ways).