This book is one of the best I've actually read so far that is recommended for the novice. It contains and index and glossary, as well as illustrations that explain the various parts of the plant, and gives simple, precise descriptions of each form of cacti and where it can be found. It also has excellent photographs of the entire plant in close-up that aid in visual identification. It has been a tremendous help in identifying cacti that once were nameless to me. If you can obtain a copy, it's well worth it.

Del Weniger has given us an excellent compilation in this volume. Fortunately, copies are still available of the out-of-print title. I highly recommend the book for beginners & experts alike. Excellent photography. Insightful text. Good organization.

I have owned this book for years and use it often in my work as a historic garment researcher & seamstress. Copious primary source material in the form of store ads, photographs of original garments in the Museum's collection, and easy-to-understand, logical descriptions of the times and social conditions under which these clothes were worn. ...

The pictures are beautiful, the information is extensive, and it'll make you want to sew!

Wow. I've been in Dallas/Irving area fifty years (since 6 mo. old) and when I picked up this book to take a look, I was amazed at all the places to go I didn't know about! I bought a copy and have enjoyed browsing its offerings! What a great gift for anyone new to the area. What am I talking about? I'm not new! It'll make a great gift - period! A must though for newcomers - hey, real estate people, what an idea for new home buyers coming into the area! And there's so many different great tid bits of info. Thanks to the author for all her work making the Metroplex a breeze to enjoy!

I picked this book up as a gift for a client who was staying a week in Dallas and had never been to Texas before. He went through the book and picked places he wanted to go, and apparently had a grand time, because he still raves about his trip.

As I didn't get the book back, I had to purchase another copy and was surprised to see how many interesting places there are in the Metroplex that even I didn't know about (and I've lived here for nearly forever.) I've since recommended this book to my company for future visiting clients and trainees.

Great source of information, excellent organization and primo insight on "must sees".

In the character of Fish Rawlings, Dearen seems to have combined the youthful exuberance of Samuel Clemens' Huckleberry Finn with the adventurous independence of Rowdy Yates (a young Clint Eastwood) from the old popular television series "Rawhide." . . . For today's young readers who did not grow up with those television western series that starred young men like "Wagon Train's" Barnaby West, "Rawhide's" Rowdy Yates, and "The High Chapparal's" Blue Cannon, the Lone Star Heroes Series helps fill the gap. -- REVIEW OF TEXAS BOOKS, SUMMER 2002.

The first book in a series for young readers [ages 8-13] featuring eleven-year-old Fish Rawlings and his cousin Gid, who try to prevent a battle between the Comanches and the Anglo wagon train in 1867. An outstanding debut to new territory for Dearen, and as usual, he does a masterful job.

The back cover of this small volume boasts a blurb, which proclaims, "Monterroso is certainly the leading living Guatemalan writer..." Not being quite an expert on Guatemalan literature myself, I cannot personally vouch for this statement. What I can swear to, however, is the fact that this compilation of writings by Augusto Monterroso is a collection of brilliant short fictions, which quickly call to mind the works of Swift, Sterne, Kafka, J.L. Borges, and Italo Calvino (among others). Reminiscent of Borges, Monterroso is a master of the self-referential (art about art/books about books); his fictions abound with tales of writers (and other story-tellers), readers, reviewers, critics, researchers, musicians, artists and historical figures who may or may not be "real." Like his predecessors, Monterroso's fictions often challenge our assumptions about literature and its conventions. He freely plays with the forms of fiction; there are "short-stories" disguised as letters, essays, and aphorisms. Several of his stories are shorter in length than the literary quotes he uses to introduce them. One of these, "The Dinosaur," (perhaps his most well-known work) is a mere 8 words long ("When he awoke, the dinosaur was still there."). In other instances, his fictions mirror the rambling nature of the spoken word itself, as they amble on and meander for 3 or 4 pages without a single bit of punctuation prior to the concluding period.
Like his (above mentioned) literary forbearers, Monterroso is a master of satire, irony, and the absurd. Resembling Swift ("A Modest Proposal"), Kafka, and Borges before him, Monterroso uses a precise, crisp and almost dispassionate writing style to put forth the most absurd and outrageous of fictions. In "Finished Symphony," for example, he casually relates having overheard in passing, someone tell of the discovery, and then destruction of the two lost movements of Schubert's great "Unfinished Symphony." In other instances, his irony can be directed at himself. "Leopoldo (His Labors)," for instance, is a short story about a reluctant short story writer who is eternally frustrated in his decades-long attempt to write his first short story. This entire piece of fiction is a virtuoso bit of satire upon the author, himself (and perhaps on all authors). And then, what could be more absurd, or more comically inspired than "Flies": "There are three themes; love, death, and flies...Let others deal with the first two. I concern myself with flies...In the beginning was the fly...It is easier for a fly to land on the nose of the Pope, than for the Pope to land on the nose of a fly...Oh, Melville, you had to sail the seas before you could finally set that great white whale on your desk in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, not realizing that Evil had long ago circled your strawberry ice cream..."
Monterroso is clearly one of the important figures in the development of modern and contemporary Latin-American fiction. Along with such writers as Bioy Casares, J.L. Borges, Gabriel Marquez, Carlos Fuentes, Tomas Eloy Martinez, Mario Vargas Llosa, and Julio Cortazar (as well as Italo Calvino, Tomasso Landolfi, John Barth, and Milan Kundera), Monterroso is a brilliant exponent of "Magic Realism". If you admire any of the aforementioned authors, I would urge you to look into this dazzling collection by an inspired writer.

Monterroso has a fantastatic sense of humor. I enjoyed the book thoroughly.

I had a fun time reading this book by Jay Milner. It's a really great chronicle of the exploits of a renegade group of Texas writers, musicians, artists, and politicos, as well a chronicle of Milner's own life as a novelist, university professor, and journalist.

Much of the fun in this book takes place in the mid 60s through mid 70s Texas, when Milner's running buddies include folks such as writers Gary Cartwright, Billie Lee Brammer, Larry L. King, and Edwin Shrake, former Texas Governor Ann Richards, Dallas Cowboy wide receiver turned novelist Peter Gent, and country music legends Willie Nelson, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Kris Kristofferson.

Since this book is also autobiographical, it would be easy for Milner to embellish the high points of his life, and choose the frames from his internal "home movie" that would be in the book. Yet Milner does no such thing. He describes his life, and the activities surrounding it, with the objectivity of a trained "old school" journalist--either in the middle of a 60s or 70s scene involving sex, drugs, and country rock and roll--or in his honest and thoughtful analysis of what he considered his own inner demons.

Jay Milner's book is more than just a fun read. It is also a reliable history of a modern, creative period when artistic endeavors coming out of Texas began to be taken seriously by the rest of the world.

"Confessions of a Maddog" is an important work in this regard. I predict that it will be required reading in any college course involving the literature of the southwest for years to come.

Lee Leatherwood Austin, TX 31 March 01

Milner has exceeded himself with this book. His compassionate record of the exploits and traumas of several of his friends as they hone their writing skills is superb. I refer you to page 222 for the most touching prose regarding one's journey up to and into the abyss of the dark night of one's soul. Billy Lee chose to go into the abyss and stay. Obviously Milner chose to take theever so rickety ladder out. His book is testimony to that choice.

I absolutely love this book! Over the last ten years, it has become a staple in my kitchen and the kitchens of friends who I have blessed with a copy. I am not a very talented cook, but I find these recipes easy to follow and virtually fail proof. My husband, a fabulous cook, also loves cooking with recipes from Cooking Texas Style. The book is filled with great unheard of recipes as well as Texas and Tex-Mex classics. In addition to the recipes, the personal notes that Ms. Marquez and Ms. Wagner have included are a thrill to read. There is information about the origin of some of the dishes as well as great family stories. I highly recommend this book to the novice or master chef! Enjoy!

This cookbook is the best book on regional Texas cooking that I have ever read. The recipes are clear and informative, spanning Mexican, German, and Southern dishes. The work is made all the more interesting by its insights into Texan life and culture.

The latest addition to the outstanding Scholarly Resources "The American Crisis Series", historian and civil war expert Richard Bruce Winders' Crisis In The Southwest: The United States, Mexico, And The Struggle Over Texas is a thoroughly "reader friendly" historical study clearly laying out facts, battles, and the profound impact the conflicts had upon history of Mexico, the European powers of the day, and the emergence of the Republic of Texas, eventually culminating in the role Texas was to play in shaping the events that were to ultimately result in the American Civil War. Black-and-white maps and illustrations enhance the carefully researched text, which presents life-and-death struggles in direct and simple language accessible for readers of all backgrounds.

Readers of American history in general and Southwest events in particular will find Crisis In The Southwest, a survey of the US/Mexican struggle over Texas, to be clear and well done. The logic and events of the Mexican War and Texas Revolution come clear with a story which covers both ideologies and underlying roots of conflict.

This book was well written and easy to understand. Mr. Metz has managed to make this book easy to understand and fun to read, but with much interest. His wordings were excellent; he used adjectives and even described persons or things with vivid colors. He has added some humors to it and it always kept my full attention.

The "4 Deads in 5 seconds" gunfight was the most thrilling. I felt as if I actually witnessed it all and witnessed folks scattered at the very sight of Marshal.

Hollywood should make a movie on Marshal Stoudenmire. I think he's worthy a movie such as it is for Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday in "Tombstone" and "Wyatt Earp".

Leon C. Metz was a great author and storyteller with unique writing humor. This book was based on true events. It was well researched and written. I have absolutely no doubts that Mr. Metz attempts to bring out favorable traits of Stoudenmire in order to help him gain much deserved respect and nationwide recognition. Stoudenmire enforced the laws no differently than Wyatt Earp, Pat Garrett and Elfego Baca. Stoudenmire deserves the same honor. Stoudenmire's period in this town was awfully short, but very colorful. Stoudenmire had no fear, not even guns or death. He was able to outdraw every opponent. He sent his wild bullets to harvest souls and sent men on their last jolting rides to the cemetery. His large structure and deadly reputation were all El Paso needed to send hard-cored violent outlaws whining and putting their tails between their shaking legs into hiding or digging their own graves. Stoudenmire's toughness and courage was no match for the outlaws combined together.

. . .

This book is highly recommended for folks who seek excitement in Wild West justice and a wild marshal to match!

A Dark Night In Texas is based in a small but real town in Texas. The places featured in the book are real but the story IS NOT. Just so you know.
Ranger O'Malley is called out to investagate a death and finds out that it is an old friend. As Ranger O'Malley searches the death of Jack Weatherby, he grows in love with Jack's kid sister, Sara. Read the book and find out if you can solve the murder before Ranger O'Malley does. But beleive me it is a great book.

Great characters in this book. Very suspenseful. An ending I totally did not expect! I would love to see Ranger O'Malley continue in other stories!