Texas Books

Cotton Smith is fast becoming one of my favorite western authors. His characters and plots just seem to get inside you and stay there. Sons of Thunder is a fascinating story -- with one of the greatest villains ever!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I didn't want to put it down. The characters and their stories were fascinating. I definitely recommend it. Cotton is in my top five of my all-time favorite Western authors!

I loved "Pray for Texas," so I was glad to see the return of Rule Cordell in Cotton Smith's next installment. The book grabs your attention with all of the plot twists and the two memorable villains -- one who thinks he's reincarnated.

tugs at the soul of everyone trapped "in the closet".. a true "fairy tale" gauranteed to make the heart smile and the soul giddy...

This is so beautiful and moving and hilarious and lovely! WHY don't people know about this book?

Edward Swift is one of my favorite authors. This book made me laugh out loud and then weep for joy in knowing that a great author like him is writing and living in our midst. Has Oprah heard about this guy? His book, "My Grandfather's Finger" captured my heart and imagination a few years ago and since then I have read all of his books that I can find in print. Such a gift he has for capturing the souls of human beings on paper. Thank you Edward Swift for touching me in a way that no other author has been able to.

Fraser's book is a tight rope act: on one side lies the easily sentimentalized; on the other, the cold unflinching truth of his brother, born with spina bifida. His poems, by being at once repelling in their candor and compelling in their humility, take enormous risks. From the beginning lines of the first poem, "Ars Poetica," Fraser calls into question any artistic posturing: "All poetry begins," he declares boldly, "with my brother's legs." What follows is an imaginative return to the womb where his brother is transported to "the light of his becoming" when he was merely a "run-on sentence of flesh, / until the dark germ rode, dormant fate for steed, along / [his] spine, flung the false logic of his DNA, dragged / him down." Such a mixed bag of metaphors is typical of Fraser's more lyrical moments. Fraser, however, gets away with yoking the odd metaphors together, the sheer intensity of the moment able to override any quibbles we might have with the apparent incongruousness of the poetic machinery. And if the aesthetic gravitas of a loaded word such as "light" appears part of a familiar landscape, Fraser refocuses the lens a handful of lines later: "Making light is easy. Watch: / half-wit, numbskull, saphead, lamebrain, nincompoop, dope." Fraser's is the voice of someone speaking from the far end of the lived and of the living. He speaks not with well-intentioned sympathy but with a terrorizing tedium able to anticipate most any taunt aimed at his brother. And as poetry itself offers no consolation, Fraser also bids "farewell to verse that rollicks by light's name."

_Strange Pieta_ is a tour de force of craft, lyricism, and imaginative reach. The poems addressed to Fraser's brother Jonathan, born with spina bifida, will certainly interest readers involved in disability studies, but the appeal of this book is broader than any particular subject or person. The poems are wise, angry, tender, unforgiving of human cruelty but richly generous in their understanding of frailty and their desire for connection. The precision of Fraser's language, his daring leaps of wit and image, and the profundity of his insights into love, desire, and loss--all combine for a stunningly beautiful first collection.

A breathtaking journey. For the theorist, Strange Pieta enriches the discourse in disability theory. For the common reader, Fraser provides a heartfelt and emotional look into his brother's life, a life that has always been deeply intertwined with his own. Emotion and wit never ceases to flow from Strange Pieta's pages.

After my theories of crime class, I have kept my eyes open for true crime books. I saw this one on sale and picked it up, intrigued by the back cover.

Plot:
Bill Hubbard is a police sergeant in the ID department of the Lubbock County Police Department. His predecessor gives him a file of the county forensic pathologist, Ralph Erdmann. Bill then takes this file and continuously adds to it despite the District Attorney's Office's objections. When he is subpoenaed to court about Erdmann's testimony, he tells the complete truth and is later indicted for telling the truth. The final parts of the book detail his legal battle to win back his job, his pride, and his reputation.

Good:
Intriguing! It is scary to think that there are counties that exist in the United States who are not above falsifying government reports and lying under oath. Bill Hubbard's integrity and perseverance is invigorating and refreshing in this fake, deceptive society. Even when it would have been easy to say "I don't remember" or to lie, he refuses to do so.
I was also moved by the great amount of donated support from other law offices. I wish in this world there were more people like Dennette Vaughn, Gerald Goldstein, and Dan Hurley who worked, not for a big, fat paycheck but because the person was wrongly convicted.
Further, Bill is gifted with, not only being a good, honest cop, but being a great writer. I feel Bill did a good job incorporating dialogue (which probably came from court transcripts and memories) to liven up the book. He kept me interested every step of the way, dropping hints and providing great detail. He should be very proud of the work he has done here.

Bad:
The first 100 or so pages are quite gory as they detail autopsies and the like. If a person is faint of heart, this is not a good book to read.

Dialogue/Sexual Situations/Violence:
Two instances of the f- word that someone besides the author says. No sexual situations. Violence is mostly referencing prior police jobs--the shooting of a cop, a rape, and the like.

Overall:
After reading another true crime book about Laci and not learning more than I could have found on Wikipedia, I was a little worried about this book. However, my concerns were not founded. This is an excellent book about how the truth won out. Definitely worth reading.

As a west Texan I felt a little embarassed or slammed by the book but facts are facts and courage like this is extremely rare. This has national relevance. This REALLY happened and new crimes and cover-ups of the pathologist are still surfacing. Hubbard (and his wife) basically took on the world. They are BOTH heroes. You will wonder what makes a person even continue to believe in the human race. Truth always divides but it eventually prevails. This is not just a mystery....it is a warning and an uplifting testimony to faith and truth. Actually it is a love story. You'll recommend it to others. He tells a story well. I would buy his next book based on this one.

Well written, quick paced and quite a ride. It's easy to get lost in this book, until it sends a shiver down your spine when you remember this is a true story and that it happen just four or five years ago. Bravo to the Criminal Defense Attorneys that championed Bill Hubbards cause. As much as everyone wants to bad mouth defense attorneys, one must remember - they are the only people in this country trying to preserve the Constitution.

Robert Summers says: "Catherine Lord went through chemotherapy, and she was radically transformed. We now read the book (the aftermath?), and we go through a different therapy -- in which we become transformed. Indeed, this auto-biography (auto-geo-graphy? auto-topo-logy?) is a book of transformations: it is always at work.
Without a doubt, I am deeply thankful to Lord for generously performing the details, insights, and performative self-portraits of her encounter with breast cancer, which became, through transference of love, my breast cancer, but in no way a non-Other-eradicating one.
If anyone has been touched by cancer (through their own body or a loved one), then this is a "must read" because it not only opens up and out to that which can kill, but it also openly demonstrates that which gives us sustenance and hence (a) life: friends, love, hope, desire.
I will forever be thankful for this book, this work, and the letters and words that this book has done on and in me.
All this written, just to say, "Thank you, Catherine Lord! I love to you"

Catherine Lord has written what may well be the most complex, multi-layered account of the day to day drama, fear, anxiety and exhaustion that are all part of going through a major illness, in this case, breast cancer. Simultaneously full of rage and love, biting wit and medical detail, this book, by a sophisticated art critic and writer, is a must for any woman ( and some men) who desires more specifics of life after initial diagnosis. Although very real, it reads like a great novel. Her baldness doesnt pull any punches but will be a great companion.

Catherine Lord's book exemplifies the move towards a biting, honest cultural criticism that takes its power from its visceral link to personal trauma. Amazingly enough, Lord manages to explore and perform her battle with breast cancer with humor and pathos without lapsing into self-indulgence. This is a deeply moving book but also an instructive one, subtly instructing the reader in essential emotional strategies of survival.

I LOVE THIS BOOK! ONE OF THE FEW BOOKS I HAVE READ TO MY 4TH GRADERS THAT KEEKPS THEIR TOTAL INTEREST. I GAVE THEM A QUIZ AFTERWARDS AND THEY DID PHENOMINAL! THANK YOU FOR CARRYING THIS ITEM!

Susanna of the Alamo is an excellent book that enables children to place themselves within a historical event. Susanna of the Alamo focuses on the only survivor of the tragic Alamo fight, Susanna Dickinson and her infant daughter. THe story is told from her point of view which gives the children today the ability to understand the fight as it was unfolding. I teach 5th graders and every year the book has brouight a tear to an eye and a solemn calm to my room. The children are able to place themselves in theat time period through Jakes work and not only understand what the Texas settlers felt but how they felt also. It is an excellent book with which to teach about the Alamo- I couldn't do it without it!

I don't often review books that I sell, via Amazon, but this one is an exception. I found the topic of interest, as I had never heard of Susanna. At first I thought it to be a fictional tale, "Oh Susanna..."
but it's not. It's the story of a real woman who survived the battle of the Alamo, along w/ her young daughter. Her husband, and all the other men from the Alamo were not so fortunate.

With great strength of character, even during her grief, she stood up to Santa Anna refusing his offers of charity. She carried the tale of the Alamo defeat to San Houston. Her message helped to galvanize -- motivate -- the troops to push on towards victory.

Written by John Jakes, this is not a tale for young pre-school aged children. It's definately more of a historical sort of resource for those doing research or interested in that time/era/place.

I really loved this book. The main story of the little heroine Becca Bass, and her guy, Morgan is pretty good. What really drew me in however, was the plot involving Becca's parents, Harmon and Amanda Bass. The story is wonderful. I enjoyed these two characters so much, I searched to find the book that told their earlier story --I knew there had to be one. To my surprise, I found four more novels involving Harm and Amanda. This one is the last of the five-book series Dana Ransom has created about the Bass family. The whole series is just yummy. Make sure you read them all.

Another wonderful story of the Bass Family Saga! Becca has become a Bass to be proud of. Hopefully Dana Ransom will at least give one more look into the lives of the people we have grown to love. What about Randall? Please, we need some kind of closure!

Encourage the publisher to reprint and promote the entire Bass Family series starting with "Temptation's Trail." These books stand out not just as historical romances but as fine westerns adventures. Harmon Bass is one of most atypical romantic heroes I've ever read--also one of the best in this or any other genre.

From the moment I heard about the premise of this book I waited with anticipation. What joy that it fulfilled everything I expected. Susan is a gifted writer and brings these women's words to life. The book made me desperate for more, both in depth and scope. As easy to take as a novel, it is a history lesson - should I say HERstory - and then some. Superb work.

Susan Cummins Miller, a very gifted editor and writer, has scored a hit with this one! It should be read by every woman, young and old, desiring a woman's insight of the events of the West during its formative years. The book gives the reader a woman's perspective as to the hardships suffered along with moments of humor and the joys of discovery and exploration through essays, travelogues, poetry and letters. The editor has blended well a group of women writers who lived this age of discovery and settlement. Almost all the cultures in the West during the period are presented with their particular view of the events as they lived them. It is a unique collection and I wish I had read this book in college. It certainly would have broadened my horizons and complimented the materials presented in my history and literature classes. Hey, professors! You need to add this book to your must read lists. And, to the author, many thanks for finding a unique niche that had been missed and filling it with a great group of women writers, broadening our historical and literary minds and giving us one great book that can be enjoyed many times over. It will hold a sacred place on my bookshelf.

For the first time I really understand the role played by WOMEN in settling the West. This collection of writings by women of all cultures took me to that time and let me feel the joy, loneliness, laughter, exhaustion and fulfillment of settling a new country. It also let me see the life of the American Indian through the eyes of women for the first time. Excellent read.

When I was a young boy growing up in Oklahoma, I was told of my great-great grandfather being hung in Texas during the Civil War. I never knew much about the circumstances surrounding the event other than that, except that his name was Nathaniel Miles Clark, and that I was named for one of his sons, James Lemuel.

While looking up ancestors, I came across Mr. McCaslin's historical account about a mass hanging in Gainesville Texas in 1862. Believing that this could be an account of the event about which I had been told, I ordered the book, and read it through in one day. It was a most enlightening account.

Since then I have read accounts from other sources of the same events, but Mr. McCaslin's well documented study is the most complete and impartial account that I have read of the entire episode. Mr. McCaslin does much to reduce the historical obscurity of the circumstances surrounding the Great Gainesville Hangings, especially to the descendants of the victims of that episode, which by now must be a great number of people.

I would like to see a movie made based on this event.

Mr. McCaslin has opened the murky pages of the past with this outstanding accounting of the Hanging at Gainesville. Even today there are strong feelings on both sides regarding the right or wrong of the situation, although, there can never be any doubt that the system broke down badly. It is a image of controlled and ordered hysteria. I have no doubt that the Southern sympathizers felt justified in their actions. I also have no doubt that their actions was an abuse of power, regardless of how justified they felt.

His book has helped me reconstruct the events in the life of my ancestor, Alexander Boutwell, who was the executioner at the majority of the hangings.

Mr. McCaslin does an outstanding job portraying both sides without condoning the actions of either. His book, which is dog-eared and full of notes, holds a welcome spot in my library.

Books like this should be required reading for libertarians who think that if you just removed government from peoples' lives, that everything would just sort of work itself out for the best. This would also be good reading for any Southern apologists who would argue that the Confederacy just wanted to be left in peace and that the war was all about Yankee aggression.

The story of this book is what happens when central authority breaks down and people are left to their own devices. When people take the law into their own hands, they tend to do what furthers their own interests. In this case, the interests lay primarily with the Confederate sympathizers in the Gainesville region of Texas, who proceeded to take about 40 Unionists and execute them during October 1862. Not coincidentally, many of the Unionists and Confederates had other bones of contention between them, and these hangings settled a number of scores unrelated to Civil War itself. Some men faced reprisals, but in large part most of those who participated never were brought to any sort of justice.

This is a cautionary tale, especially in these times when civil liberties seem to discarded all too easily in favor of national security. The Unionists, though few had actually spoken out against the Confederacy (some were not even Unionists!), were charged with treason & conspiracy to insurrection. Under the guise of protecting the security of the region, the suspects were rushed to justice & summarily executed. These were all people, on both sides, who had been model citizens for the most part only a few years previously.

Events like this were not restricted to North Texas. Out in frontier communities, a lot of people took advantage of the breakdown of authority to settle scores with their enemies, often under the guise of protecting the security of their region. After reading a book such as this, one is left with a very unsettled view of man's capacity for lawlessness, even among the most respectable of citizens, if given a chance to break the law without consequence. It has happened before, and it could happen again.

With every reading I have more respect for this writer's talent. Children love these wonderful books. I count myself among those children.

Tales of the Texas Mermaid is one of the best books I've read in a long time! It is a children's book series that even adults will enjoy. I can't wait for the next book in the series to be released and look forward to seeing it on the big screen some day!

I gave this as a Christmas present and everyone I gave it to, loved it, young and old. I also have it for my 3 daughters and they love it and read it over and over. What a delight, I can't wait for the next one.