Indiana Books

Although now more than a decade old, Attebery's book is one of the finest critical works on fantasy that can be found. His writing is pleasant but insightful, and where many critics spend a lot of time and effort coming up with their own particular definition of the fantasy genre (often including or excluding too much, thus rendering the definition useless), Attebery introduces the concept of the fantasy genre as a fuzzy set, centred on one (or a handful) of works which can be considered typically fantasy. The genre then spread out from this centre, changing but maintaining something in common with the central works.

In my opinion, this is a book which is almost as hard to ignore to the fantasy scholar as is Tolkiens "On Fairy-Stories".

A good overview on Black Documentary films, mostly from PBS and its early history with the TV series at WNET, BLACK JOURNAL, and the legacy of Henry Hampton with his Blackside in Boston (Eyes on the Prize). The book also covers the early little known history of the documentary film and its pioneer, William Alexander.

Incredible book . The story of 1,262 men who served in the Civil War. Complete roster, including home towns. This is most of all a personal book, the lives of over 1,000 men who almost all came from Northern Indiana, about Peru through South Bend. If you are in Indiana, you can visualize the towns they were from, many whom exist today. You'll see the units all recruited from the same town, dozens or even close to a hundred all from the same area. You can imgine when one third never came home and sometimes a whole town's men disappeared. A vicious war, fought by men of honor and belief on both sides.

Believe it or not, I read this book and I truly believe it is a masterpiece...I laughed, I cried, I recalled old memories of the Chapter house.....socials, pledging, and other fun things young men like to do.....all brtohers should read this captivating tale, besides, we always tell pledges "David Letterman is a brother"...now you can learn something about the man behid the name....

In Hoc, Morton

The book is well researched and laid out. I had talked and written to the Author both before and after publication, but have lost contact. Was a real help on my family research and she had taken photos of some of the hard to find small cemeteries including all the stones, which I was able to obtain. A must for every Library.

Although simply written, this is not a book for beginers. On the other hand it doesn't hurt to read it early and think about it for a long time, rereading it from time to time, in order finally to get the main point. Wigner points out that the basis for answering the question posed by him, 'Why is it possible to discover laws of nature?' is explained in every elementary physics text but the point is too subtle, is therefore lost on nearly every reader. The answer, he explains convincingly, lies in invariance principles. As an example, were local Galilean invariance not true it would have been impossible for Galileo to have discovered any law of motion at all. The same holds for local translational, rotational and time-translational invariance. Inherent in Wigner's argument is the explanation why the so-called principle of general covariance is not the foundation of general relativity, which also is grounded in the local invariance principles of special relativity.

Contrast this with the nonsense propagated in the first chapter of Samuelson's well-sold Economics text, where he asserts on the basis of a hokey picture that the difference between physics and the social sciences is not as great as it seems. In fact, there are no known invariance principles in the socio-economic sciences, and no corresponding laws of socio-economic motion (motion of money, e.g.). At best, there are intelligent gambling strategies like the equations for predicting option pricing, but these depend on market statistics that can change from one era to the next. Nor is it guaranteed that options traders will forever favor the dalta-hadging strategy and it's refinements. The last word: mathematical modelling and computer simulations are a completely different cat than approximate predictions based on laws of nature, like the laws of physics and genetics. The fact that we cannot yet (if ever) solve the Navier-Stokes equations for turbulence, which are grounded in local invariance principles and physical law, has nothing to do with our general inability to model human behavior mathematically.

An outstanding history of hockey in Fort Wayne, and a wonderful read. Author Blake Sebring nails the history of the third oldest franchise in Minor-League hockey with a series of entertaining five to ten paragraph tales. He hits on life in the old International Hockey League, squaring off with opponents like Muskegon and Toledo. He touches on life after coast-to-coast expansion and the demise of the old league. He captures stories from life in today's United Hockey League. Throughout, he spins stories that perfectly describe what fans love about hockey.


Sebring focuses on the names and faces that populate the game, and never forgets to toss in the irrelevant gem (Did you know the Komets are 10-0 in games where the San Diego Chicken made an appearance?) that truly makes this book indispensable for the fan of minor league sports.

Reading the names in the Dedication and scanning the Chapter names, I knew I was in for a treat. Paging through the Record Book and the season by season stats, I knew I had a keepsake. This is the way a history should be compiled!

Pick up a copy. You won't regret it.

Accessibly written by Leon F. Hesser (an expert in Agricultural Economics who is also a direct descendant of pioneers who worked to transform Indiana's wilderness into commercial farmlands in the nineteenth century), The Taming Of The Wilderness: Indiana's Transition From Indian Hunting Grounds To Hoosier Farmland: 1800 To 1875 is an informed and informative account of how settlement reworked the landscape itself. Organized in three major sections: 1800-1825: Living with the Wilderness (subsistence living under primitive conditions); 1825-1850: Bridling the Wilderness (canals and steamboats facilitate trade); and 1850-1875: A Wilderness Vanquished (railroads dramatically change commerce and the environment), The Taming Of The Wilderness presents both original research enhanced by previously unpublished firsthand narratives of what pioneer farming life was like, and also presents a special attention to how Native Americans were removed from Indiana's land by brute force. The Taming Of The Wilderness is a welcome and very highly recommended contribution to Indiana state history reference shelves, as well as inherently absorbing study for non-specialist general readers because of Leon Hesser's obvious skills at providing vivid, narrative style descriptions.

Tap into the Great Lakes - A guide to the Brewpubs and Microbreweries of Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio and Wisconsin.

What a title! What a book! This is an in-depth review of microbrews in the Great Lakes region, and oh what a region it is! Mr. Bice must have had a great time sampling the various brews throughout the five states listed.

Having visited a few of the microbreweries, I can certainly attest to the accuracy and quality of the reviews. It is very well written and clearly understandable. The glossary of brews is certainly a useful tool when search for the perfect Scotch Ale!

Taylor Mead's writings are completely unique and to me, they are wonderful and brilliant. "A Simple Country Girl" is a perfect book to read at home, in bed, in the bathtub, on the toilet, in a park, or take with you on a bus, cab, train, or to a Doctor's waiting room. There is one piece of writing per page, ranging from brief to very brief. Yet in his brevity Mead speaks volumes, volumes that impact me more each time I read them. Most of what he writes makes me smile or laugh out loud, other things are more serious and have a bite to them. Any fragile soul offended by such things as free speech, swear words, or topics such as sex might want to pass on Meads' works, as these things do pop up from time to time.

This is his latest book, his first since 1986's "Son of Andy Warhol". Prior to that book was "On Amphetamine and in Europe" from 1968. If you get the sense that Mead doesn't flood the market with 'product', you'd be correct. I own and love "A Simple Country Girl", as well as the two aforementioned books. With the exception of parts of "On Amphetamine...", the other two books I own by Mead completely forsake plot and narrative in favor of poetry, statements, stream of consciouness writings, random notes, etc.

So if you're looking for Tom Clancey - or for that matter even for Burroughs or Ginsberg - look elsewhere. If you long for something totally, completely unique and - dare I say it? - often charming, you've found it. And you'd better get it now, because Taylor's books unfortunately don't seem to stay in print very long, and forget about reissues. It's a sad situation and the only people who benefit are used book sellers who sell Mead's out of print collector's items for $100 and up - if you can find them at all, that is.

I think the Amazon description lists this as Mead's fourth book, but from what I can tell it's at least the fifth, if not the seventh. Prior to the above mentioned three books, I've read that 1961 saw the release of "Excerpts From the Anonymous Diary of a New York Youth" (and seen the cover reproduced in another book), followed in 1962 by "Second Excerpts From the Anonymous Diary of New York Youth". "On Amphetamine and in Europe" and "Son of Andy Warhol" were titled volumes 3 and 4, respectively. A search savvy friend of mine turned up mentions of two other writings by Mead, "Impressions: France Mexico USA" 1969, and "Poems For Marilyn", 1962. Three books in two years - a prolific time for Taylor! I only wish he'd kept up the pace somewhat so that Mead addicts such as myself had more to read and reread.

And maybe rereading is a key; for me definitely. My first exposure to Taylor's writings left me thinking: 'What?' 'But this isn't...' 'Or is it? What is it?' 'He can't - but he has' and other such erudite musings.

Aside from being a writer, Taylor has appeared in more underground or independent films and plays than probably any other actor, beginning in Ron Rice's 1960 film "The Flower Thief", and Rice's 1963 "The Atom Man Meets the Queen of Sheba", (which Mead himself restored, preserved and edited in the early 1980s), Robert Downey Sr.'s "Babo 73", appeared in 11 Andy Warhol films from 1963 to 1968, and about 50-100 films later, turned up in Jim Jarmusch's 2003 "Coffee and Cigarettes" - the dvd of which has a 5 minute Mead interview as an extra. He won a obie award for his performance in "The General Returns From One Place to Another", a play by Frank O'Hara.

Taylor Mead is definitely a rennaisance man, and to quote a piece from his "A Simple Country Girl": 'I Am a National Treasure / If there were such a thing'. And to that I say that there is such a thing, Taylor Mead is one, and it's just too bad that he lives in a country that doesn't recognize, honor, and support such Treasures.