This book is very interesting and allows those of us who are interested in the McVeigh-Nichols saga to see how the bombing affected some of their family members. The only downfall - the book stops short of the trial. I hope Lana Padilla someday writes a second book.

Gossip and speculation keep the rumor mills churning in Medicine Creek, Oklahoma. Preacher Mike Kirkpatrick finds himself unintentionally and unofficially engaged by serving a breakfast side by side with Gloria. Everyone in town knows his son Zach had gotten in trouble by skipping school and going to the Cagle ranch before Mike did. So when the preacher/real estate agent begins spending time with attorney Annie Fisher, everyone knows it. It only took three words, when Annie whispered "Those poor kids," for this father of five to give his heart to Annie.

Sixteen years have yet to bring healing to Annie. Growing up in Medicine Creek with a cold stepmother had made childhood painful. Now only three stories of rummage remain to remind Annie of the bitter woman who had raised her, and virtually erased the memory of her Chickasaw birth mother. As Annie begins to ready the house and property for sale, however, she begins to uncover the well guarded secrets to her past that tie her the town of Medicine Creek. Suddenly her engagement to a senator and her successful career in Washington, D.C. seem irrelevant and unfulfilling.

Author Darlene Graham creates a warm romance in DAUGHTER OF OKLAHOMA. This memorable father of five finds himself at cross purposes when the town pushes him in one direction and his heart leads in another. Gloria's meddling lends the novel a fun subplot and mild tension as she struggles to arrange events to lead to the altar. Annie's painful childhood lends sympathy and depth, especially as she uncovers information about her birth mother. Unfortunately, the many subplots leave readers feeling pulled in too many directions at once. Recommended.

I wanted to like the book, but was gravely disappointed. I was originally going to rate it two stars--I raised it to three because the author seems such a nice guy! The book consists of fifty sets of two facing pages, each set devoted to a bird. On the right is a painting, usually showing a side view of the bird and nothing else. On the left is a page of text on the bird, usually an anecdote about the author's experience with the species. Most of the stories are very dated, from the 1940s or 1950s. I find the book mildly amusing to leaf through when I'm bored, but it is no use as a reference, didn't challenge or inspire me, and I wouldn't dream of taking it into the field. There are much better uses for your reading dollar.

Author Jean Hager is Billie Letts (Where The Heart Is) Meets Tony Hillerman. If you're in the mood for a good police procedural, and you're on friendly terms with the landscape of eastern Oklahoma (and its people) you'll like this novel. Mitch Bushyhead is the chief of police of the tiny burg of Buckskin Oklahoma. Although he served on a "big city" police force, he now spends a lot of his time patrolling the quiet streets and country lanes planning his next fishing trip. However, even if recently widowed chief didn't have to find the killer of a celebrated Cherokee artist, he would be busy enough trying to figure out how to raise a teenage daughter as a single father. Not only does the murder of the artist force Bushyhead to pull back the veneer of a sedate small town, but forces him to come to terms with his own heritage (he's half Cherokee). Bushyhead solves this crime the old-fashioned way: keeping his eyes and ears open, as well as his options, as he pokes and prods his way through the Oklahoma back country. His crew of deputies are competent and colorful, but Bushyhead is the one whose job (and life) is on the line.

Ms. Wiltshire attempts a lot in this book -- to trace the theme of personal rights over 2000 years of history from ancient Greece and Rome through the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and into colonial America, culminating in the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution. The nature of the task and the size of the book make more than a cursory attempt at a historical lineage impossible. Nevertheless, Ms. Wiltshire has provided some introductory framework for the discussion.

Some portions of the book (particularly her discussion of the ninth and tenth amendments and her attempt to paint the Apostle Paul as a natural law theorist) are contrived.

I thought the book was a reasonable introduction to the subject until I read her conclusion and a separate essay she wrote on the book, in which she stated that her purpose in writing was to place the origin of the bill of rights in a classical, as opposed to a Judeo-Christian, context. While I would agree with her that the typical fundamentalist exaggerates when he paints the framers of the Constitution as almost entirely orthodox Christians, I would disagree with her conclusion that Christianity was not a primary influence. For a better treatment of this view, read Forrest McDonald's "Novus Ordo Seclorum: Intellectual Origins of the Constitution," where he concludes that it is futile to say with any dogmatism that the "founding fathers thought," or "the founding fathers intended," because the framers of the Constitution were a diverse group with diverse backgrounds and interests.

The information in the book is pretty good, but I found it very difficult to read. Being a descendant of the Spears family, I had hoped to learn a little about the LIFE of my relations, most of the text was a re-hash of dates and places. It was horribly difficult to navigate through different chapters.

This book gave reasons as to why the Murrah Federal Building was picked as a bombing target. The reasons(i.e the tall glass windows) it gave as to why that building was choosen are very good. Quite a good book if you are wondering why the Oklahoma Federal Building was picked as the bombing target!

I am a fan of the NewHour with Jim Lehrer and find Mr. Lehrer to be an excellent newsman. However, my expectations in listening to Lost and Found were not met. Mr. Lehrer tells a good story but the quality of the writing was weak. I will try some of his later works to see if there is some improvement in style and substance

Banker-oilman E.F. Blaise's National Bank of Tulsa collapse-reorganization finally documented!

(I am a 63-year-old reader, not a 12-year-old!
Amazon's age questionnaire block will not record any age over 12!))

Full of tough times & amazing (or appalling!) revelations. Fills in the many blanks and background assumptions about early rural Oklahoma school teaching that my grandmother somehow thought everyone would remember in the 21st century. Tone is exactly that of my grandmother, as well -- everything is tedious and hard, "but we enjoyed it." I don't believe it for a minute, but everybody must have pretended they did back then.

The book relates facts in chronological order, without much attention to telling a story or building an argument. Nevertheless useful for research into period.