Texas Books

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.

The book told the story of the Texas Rangers through the eyes of a young Ranger, George Durham. The story begins with George becoming one of "Capt. McNelly's" Rangers. The rangers are sent out to the battle of Palo Alto to the Taylor-Sutton fued and various other historical events. It ends with George marrying Caroline Chambers of the famed King Ranch. The book is a must for Texas history buffs.

I first read this book when I was in 5th grade. I wanted to know more about my grandfather at that time as he died way before I was born. It was so interesting that I have reread it several times since. My grandfather led a colorful life and this book tells about the time he was a Texas Ranger with Leander McNelly. He wasn't with him for very long, but the memories stayed with him until the end. It starts when he is a teenager straight from Georgia after the civil war, finding Capt. McNelly (who, by this time is very ill and dying of tuberculosis) becoming a Texas Ranger and how he meets my grandmother, Caroline Chamberlain, who was Mr. & Mrs. King's niece and whom he loved. It tells of how wild and dangerous it was along the Nueces Strip (a line from Corpus Christi to the border)back then and about the different characters he met along the way such as King Fisher, John Wesley Hardin, Juan Nepomuncino Cortinas, the Taylors and Suttons... What it doesn't tell the reader is that they had 10 children and raised them all on the El Sauz division of the King Ranch...My family...and I am proud of them.

Great book on the Texas Rangers. The book is easy reading and tells the story of McNelly's rangers throught the eyes of a Young Ranger named Ed Durhm. Would make a good movie.

What a delightful book! A guide for Texas Teasippers or just a pleasant read - the author has a great sense of humor. This book will live in my car from now on.

A MUST FOR TEA LOVERS What a charming, humorous guide to the tearooms in Texas! Lori Torrance has done such a wonderful job, even my husband is ready to search out some of these places!! It's a miracle! ha If you're a tea lover and enjoy gathering yourself in quiet, little out of the way places, you've got to get this book. And it's the perfect gift for tea loving friends.

And, if you love Texas like I do, you would also enjoy checking out Last of the Old Time Texans, Texas Bad Girls: Harlots, Hussies, & Horsethieves, or a Browser's Book to Texas History....

This book is great! It is a guide to all the tearooms in Texas! It has pictures, menus, famous quotes, histories of the town the tearoom is in, as well as the history of the tearoom! It even has various fillers, like "How to Read Tea Leaves and What the Symbols Mean", "How to Make a Proper British Cup of Tea", etc. This is so worth the money. I know the author and she has spent well over a year, with her mother, traveling to all these tearooms. They took pictures (inside and out) and the pictures look fantastic. It is not a critique, but a handy guide you can take with you. Why settle for fast food, when you can have an ice cold glass (or even cup of hot) Almond tea , choices of homemade sandwiches, soups and outrageous desserts in a quiet victorian decorated room. In one tearoom, you can even hear singing English Countryside birds. Personally, I have always been a coffee drinker, but now, I am even ready to go drink tea!! (cold or hot). Enjoy the book, I sure do..

Technophobia! is a funny and fascinating thematic history of science fiction. In addition to Dinello's humorous take on a sometimes sobering subject, what really sets this book apart is the unique structure that pits science's pervasive technoutopian viewpoint against science fiction's technophobic response. Instead of treating sci-fi as pop culture pulp, Dinello places it within the context of recent scientific advances, providing insightful, entertaining explanations of research into posthuman technology, artificial intelligence, robotics, bionics, biotechnology, nanotechnology and more. I learned about science and science fiction. And Technophobia! brings the debate up-to-the-minute by dealing with technology and the Iraq War, the Transhumanist movement, electronic surveillance, mind control, and viruses--both electronic and biological. This thought-provoking book will make you take a closer look at how technology is shaping, even controlling, not just the lives of sci-fi characters but every one of us as well.

There are many reasons to read this book. I'd like to start one of the best. I'm currently engaged in writing something of my own dealing with robots, cyborgs, androids, and other kinds of artificial people in popular culture. I'm therefore reading my way through many of the standard books in the subject area. I've been crawling through bibliography after bibliography, compiling long lists of nonfiction books and novels to read and movies and television series to view. Daniel Dinello's overall mastery of the literature at large is unrivaled. Reading this book is, on one level, akin to reading a very good annotated bibliography. By the end of it, you will be aware of all the major figures on both sides of debates between technophiles and technophobe.

Dinello proudly aligns himself with the technophobes and marshals a host of good reasons for his position. While many assume a blithe optimism like that found in the novels of Isaac Asimov, that all technological development will aid humanity and present few dangers to us, Dinello joins the majority of SF writers and filmmakers who are far less sanguine about the future role of technology in our lives. Dinello find it more likely that robots like those in the Terminator films could arise than the Asimovian prime directive robots found in FORBIDDEN PLANET and LOST IN SPACE. He finds the notion of nonlethal robots to be naive, since a staggering amount of research in the field receives funding from DARPA (The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a branch of the Department of Defense). The vast majority of cutting edge technological research is being done with an eye to its military applications. Cute, nonlethal robots would have little role to play for the military.

Although there has been little public outcry about the dangers of much of the technology that is being developed with minimal oversight, there has been considerable probing of the dangers of unregulated, uncontrolled technological development by a long string of works of SF. In fact, apart from exceptions like Asimov and the unexamined optimism of the shows making up the STAR TREK franchise, most films, books, and TV series have made much of the dangers inherent in these technologies.

I can't recommend this book strongly enough. By the end any reader will have a firm grasp of the primary books and movies raising the most pertinent questions about the wisdom and desirability of promoting ungoverned technological expansion. One will also have encountered any number of technophile gurus who believe that technological heaven is only a few years away. These are people who fantasize about taking one's brain and slicing it away one little section as a time and then magically downloading its data into a computer (as if such an interface will be completely unproblematic). One would then boot up one's personality and enjoy a virtual though bodiless eternity, a bit like becoming permanently part of a SIMS game. In one of the books Dinello cites, a character comments on a similar procedure, calling it what it is: dying.

The one weakness of the book is that Dinello doesn't seem to know television as well as movies and books. It was published in 2005, but the manuscript was probably finished before the debut of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA in 2003. But other shows were not mentioned despite being remarkably relevant. For instance, in the chapter on the possible manipulation of DNA to enhance soldiers I kept waiting for some mention of DARK ANGEL, which ran from 2000-2002. Many of the more extreme fantasies of scientists (e.g., soldiers with tougher skin or with gills) were artistically in that series. And the main character, Max (Jessica Alba) was herself, as she told some friends, "a genetically enhanced killing machine." Why Dinello failed to bring up the most prominent representation of genetically enhanced soldiers was odd. My only guess is that at a certain point he cut off his research to write.

Likewise, in the chapter on nanotechnology I kept anticipating some mention of the replicators in STARGATE SG-1, easily the most prominent depiction of nanotechnology gone wrong either on TV on in film. The only defense I can imagine is that it is much harder to catch up on TV series than it is to read novels or watch individual movies. As I've learned in my own project, committing yourself to watching yet another TV series can involve remarkable amounts of time. Still, these were two instances where TV would have provided him with some of his best examples.

This criticism aside, I cannot recommend this book strongly enough. This is as fine a survey of the wide range of responses that imaginative SF is making to the emerging technologies that are redefining our world. You'll not only love reading this; you'll find yourself constantly writing down the names of other books or movies that you want to try out next.

Dinello's sojourn into all realms of science fiction is insightful and quite comical. I highly recommend this book for all fans of sci-fi and it's excellent references, classic (Blade Runner) and obscure (Octavia Butler), would make an excellent textbook. Technology is truely a blessing and a curse; no other book lays this out more clearly.

An excellent well written book ! Being a descendent of one of the early pioneers of South Texas, this book really open up my eyes on how our early ancestors used the natural resources around them to built their homes and where proud of them. It also describes how the unity in the family helped them cope with the struggles of goverment changes. This book takes you back in time as if you where there to see it. This is a book everyone who is interested in early South Texas History must read. My hats off to Andres Tijerina.

Tijerina states that, "Tejanos founded the ranching frontier on their land grants... were the founders of the State of Texas". I agree that only Tejanos have lived and fought under six flags and that Tejanos are here to stay. Tejano Empire is a bold book, well documented, and difficult to lay aside once opened by a reader. Stories handed down for generations are finally put into print. Beasley's sketches depict tejano stories that will live forever. Bravo - Andres Tijerina and thank you.

Being a descendant of a pioneer ranch family in Duval County since the 1860's, Rancho San Buenaventura; after reading Tejano Empire it brings out the spirit of my greatgrandfather's and so many other rancheros of that era's way of life. I think this book will bring back self confidence to the many families in South Texas with ranching roots. With this book Tijerina helps fill the void of the much neglected history of the ranchos in South Texas from a Tejano point of view. The beautiful illustrations by Ricardo M. Beasley and Servando Hinojosa are also an additional plus. A definite book to add to anyones collection if you're into Texas history.

Clay Reynolds struck a home run with this wonderfully enlightening book about turning a hopeless situation about a 1850's guy who's profession is a Tent maker that decides to go west and gets himself into trouble, fame and fortune and back.
I've ordered over 10 of them and given them to friends.....
Their opinion of the book is the same as ours....Wonderful.

Jim

I have been reading Clays Reynolds' works since Franklins Crossing, and find each one to be even more enjoyable than the previous. I didn't just read The Tentmaker, I devoured it. The characters are well rounded, and truly breathe with a life of their own on the pages. I found myself identifying with Gil Hooley as if I had known him all my life. I could clearly see him throwing up his hands and yelling, "WHAT?!" with every encounter he had with Margot Phillips, the red-haired Madam. And as for Margot, she is without doubt the most vexing, stubborn, irritating, alluring woman I have seen in some time. I found myself laughing out loud each time she would browbeat Hooley into doing what she wanted, and then berate him for doing it with the next breath. Hooley is a man, who through the accident of fate, ends up becoming everything he has never really wanted to be. And as a result of this, is placed in the very uncomfortable position of having to defend what he never really wanted in the first place. And through his actions, he becomes a hero, albeit, a reluctant hero. This is a well written, and extremely engaging book. Whether or not you are a fan of Western Fiction, and if you never read another book of this genre, read this book. You won't regret it.

This is one of best tales I've come across in years. The hapless Gil Hooley is constantly trying to find a quiet place to read and smoke his pipe, yet the camp he established quickly becomes a settlement, and is determined to grow into a town. The poor guy, everything he says comes out wrong, so he is forced into situations that could have been avoided. Clay Reynolds has created a winner, not to be missed.

Texas Then and Now
While I'm personally not a Texas (Oklahoman by birth), I was asked to find a "coffee table" type of book to give as a thank you to the 4 reviewers of our Peer Review Committee. While looking for books on Texas, I went through several Texas websites and publishing reviews and I really liked the description of this book. So I ordered the 4 copies and they were delivered last week - I could hardly wait to go through the book - first I just flipped through and looked at the pictures then I went back and read the book - word for word, its excellent - the photos are wonderful but the written text makes it come alive.
If you want an interesting book, do yourself a favor and choose this one!

Great book showing how the Texas landscape has changed. Pix taken in the same spot decades apart. Very different and very instersting....

If you are a Texan of just a history lover, you will love this book. We were given it as a gift but our moving van burned up. This book was lost but was one of the first things we replaced.

It's like a museum in a book! All of the Eyewitness books are that way. I'd recommend any of them. Texas is a great addition to that collection. Works great for homeschooling too.

The latest title in the outstanding DK Publishing "Eyewitness Books" series, Texas is a fun and fact-filled book for young readers about the great American state of Texas. From Texas geography and climate, to its sometimes violent history, to what life as a cowboy was really like, and a great deal more, Texas combines extensive research, amiable narration, and a wealth of outstanding color photographs to teach young readers ages 8 and older all about the proud heritage the Lone Star State.

A great book for advanced second graders and above. The facts are succint and interesting, which makes it perfect for the teacher to read before talking about the Lone Star State. The illustrations and the facts are both well done. Numerous discussions can be started from this well written book. Facts are on almost any aspect of the state including, the cities, geography, animals, plants, populations, type of government, the Alamo, etc.