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(1) "Jesse James was my neighbor" by Homer Croy
Checked out December 2008, returned January 2009
A biographical narrative of Jesse James written by Kearney, Missouri native Homer Croy, who grew up near the James family farm.
It details the complex character of Jesse James, a man who many times killed in cold blood, yet as a teen risked his own life by preventing a White mob from lynching a Black boy who got into a fight with a wealthy store owners son. A teen aged Jesse also loved singing church hymns, and often publicly prayer for God to open his brother's heart to Jesus.
He was critically injured by Union sympathizers as he returned with his Confederate regiment to surrender in Liberty City MO, an injured which caused him chronic shortness of breath for the rest of his life.
It is believed that Jesse and Frank James' first bank robbery occurred at a bank owned by a Union supporter in Liberty City on Feb 13, 1866. After being possibly involved in several other bank robberies the James joined the Cole Youngers Gang in 1868, robbing a bank in Russellville KY. After a botched robbery attempt at Northfield, Minnesota in 1871 the law began catching up with the gang, gradually arresting many members.
With the law closing in the James took on allias' and moved their families to Tennessee, working as share croppers. In 1882 Jesse moved to a rented house near his hometown in St Joseph MO while Frank moved to eastern Virginia. Missouri gov Thomas Crittenden bribed two of Jesse's only remaining gang members to assassinate him. On April 3, 1882 20 year old Robert Ford shot Jesse James in the back of the head as he was dusting off a picture
(2) "Succeeding with Autism" by Judith Cohen
Checked out on, finished
Follows the life story of "Michael", a student with high functioning autism. The author was his college admissions adviser and became a family friend. The book highlights Michael's frequent anger outbursts as a child and his intense jealousy of his younger brother. After jumping from a 2nd story window from school at age 9 he had a spend to months in a mental hospital, afterwards his behavior improved and he graduated from high school and enrolled at a private university. Through gradually gaining better control of his anger outburst and developing socially he was able to graduate with honors. Today he is a math teacher at a middle school.
(3) "Africans in America: America's Journey through Slavery" by Charles Johnson & Patricia Smith
Checked out on, finished, pages
Highlights slavery in the US from Jamestown to the Civil War. Although the first ship with captive Africans arrived at Jamestown in 1619 it was until the 1650s that servitude of all races developed into a lifelong sentence of slavery for non Whites. One of Jamestown's most prominent citizens was Anthony Johnson, who came as a captive from Angola and died owning his own 2000 acre plantation and servants both Black & White. In the 1700s Black slaves were found from New York to Georgia, with most working on tobacco farms in Maryland & Virginia or rice farms in South Carolina.
Perhaps the darkest moment of African American history was the invention of the Cotton Gin by Eli Whitney in 1803. Cotton went from an unprofitable crop to the nation's most grown cash crop. The demand for slavery from Texas to South Carolina became so great that even free Black children in Northern cities were kidnapped by the thousands. It also meant a surplus of slaves in Kentucky, Missouri, Virginia, & Maryland, and that meant slaves being auctioned further South, most being forever seperated from their families. White paranoia from the Haitain slave revolt also caused treatment of slaves to go from bad to blatant savagery - teenage boys could be forced to whip their own mothers to death, slaves who back talked could have their tongues cut off, and runaways who were caught could have their toes, even whole feet, chopped off.
There were two reasons for Northern Whites to become increasingly anti slavery in the decades before the civil war - one was the competition for jobs that working class Whites faced from free Black labor - this was the reason Whites in new states like Kansas & California voted themselves free -, the other was increased awareness of slavery's evils from a variety of sources - White missionaries in the South, escaped slaves like Frederick Douglass, and even the trial of The Amistad; a ship full of Black captives that was overtaken and sailed to NYC.
(4) "Diagnosis Schizophrenia" by Dr Rachel Miller and Dr Susan Mason
An interesting book written by two psychiatrist at a hospital ward for Schizophrenia patients on Long Island, New York. It is actually a collection of interviews with real patients in the ward with commentary by the two authors.
A summary of the book is basically a summary of the condition itself: Schizophrenia appears from nowhere from the ages of 18 to 35, signified by sudden thoughts that others are watching you, even planning harm against you; accompanied usually with racing thoughts and totally irrational behavior and thoughts. It strikes men and women and all races equally. The patients at the ward first experienced their symptoms at different places: some attending college, some taking their kids to daycare, etc.
The initial symptoms are usually severe enough that the person is taken by their family to a psychiatrists or even ER, where they are heavily medicated to calm the initial burst. They are then put on lower doses of a long term medication and enter counseling and peer groups. A person diagnosed with Schizophrenia must continue taking some medication for the rest of their lives to keep the symptoms away - there is no cure.
(5) "Aspergers from the inside out" by Michael Carley
Michael Carley is the director of the largest Aspergers Syndrome support group in the US. He was himself diagnosed with AS as an adult after his two year old son was diagnosed with it. The book tells of his personal "journey" with AS, including experiences with members of his support group.
Aspergers Syndrome is genetic based form of Autism. It usually begins manifesting itself visibly in the toddler years. Characteristics of a person with AS are: impaired social skills, intense interest in certain things, impaired motor coordination, rocking motion and body ticks when under stress, all accompanied with an average or above average IQ. AS diagnose has only occurred since the 1980s, although many suspect notable people such as Albert Einstein and Issac Newton had AS.
(6) "Green: your place in the new energy economy" by Jane & Michael Hoffman
This book details both the current problems with energy in the US with the both future renewable sources. It is of the conclusion that different types of renewables must be used to totally replace fossil fuels without reducing our economy.
For the world's transportation (specifically automobile) energy needs they see a mass switch to clean diesel engines powered by biofuels. They favor a move away from sources that are also used as food (like soybeans) to non food plants like camenila beans. While gasoline engines are dominate they favor increasing the amount of ethanol in it, although from sources other than corn, which has a lower energy yeild and requires large amounts of petroleum used to harvest it and for pesticides on it.
For the world's electricity needs that favor a variety of renewable sources, since no place is suitable for all types of them. The Great Plains and all coastlines have great wind farm potential, the desert SouthWest is ideal for large solar farms, while in the rainy Eastern US all dams of any size could be retrofitted for hydropower creation. They dislike nuclear for the large amounts of energy required to go into it to power the uranium, as well as the obvious problem of storing its radioactive wastes.
Checked out December 2008, returned January 2009
A biographical narrative of Jesse James written by Kearney, Missouri native Homer Croy, who grew up near the James family farm.
It details the complex character of Jesse James, a man who many times killed in cold blood, yet as a teen risked his own life by preventing a White mob from lynching a Black boy who got into a fight with a wealthy store owners son. A teen aged Jesse also loved singing church hymns, and often publicly prayer for God to open his brother's heart to Jesus.
He was critically injured by Union sympathizers as he returned with his Confederate regiment to surrender in Liberty City MO, an injured which caused him chronic shortness of breath for the rest of his life.
It is believed that Jesse and Frank James' first bank robbery occurred at a bank owned by a Union supporter in Liberty City on Feb 13, 1866. After being possibly involved in several other bank robberies the James joined the Cole Youngers Gang in 1868, robbing a bank in Russellville KY. After a botched robbery attempt at Northfield, Minnesota in 1871 the law began catching up with the gang, gradually arresting many members.
With the law closing in the James took on allias' and moved their families to Tennessee, working as share croppers. In 1882 Jesse moved to a rented house near his hometown in St Joseph MO while Frank moved to eastern Virginia. Missouri gov Thomas Crittenden bribed two of Jesse's only remaining gang members to assassinate him. On April 3, 1882 20 year old Robert Ford shot Jesse James in the back of the head as he was dusting off a picture
(2) "Succeeding with Autism" by Judith Cohen
Checked out on, finished
Follows the life story of "Michael", a student with high functioning autism. The author was his college admissions adviser and became a family friend. The book highlights Michael's frequent anger outbursts as a child and his intense jealousy of his younger brother. After jumping from a 2nd story window from school at age 9 he had a spend to months in a mental hospital, afterwards his behavior improved and he graduated from high school and enrolled at a private university. Through gradually gaining better control of his anger outburst and developing socially he was able to graduate with honors. Today he is a math teacher at a middle school.
(3) "Africans in America: America's Journey through Slavery" by Charles Johnson & Patricia Smith
Checked out on, finished, pages
Highlights slavery in the US from Jamestown to the Civil War. Although the first ship with captive Africans arrived at Jamestown in 1619 it was until the 1650s that servitude of all races developed into a lifelong sentence of slavery for non Whites. One of Jamestown's most prominent citizens was Anthony Johnson, who came as a captive from Angola and died owning his own 2000 acre plantation and servants both Black & White. In the 1700s Black slaves were found from New York to Georgia, with most working on tobacco farms in Maryland & Virginia or rice farms in South Carolina.
Perhaps the darkest moment of African American history was the invention of the Cotton Gin by Eli Whitney in 1803. Cotton went from an unprofitable crop to the nation's most grown cash crop. The demand for slavery from Texas to South Carolina became so great that even free Black children in Northern cities were kidnapped by the thousands. It also meant a surplus of slaves in Kentucky, Missouri, Virginia, & Maryland, and that meant slaves being auctioned further South, most being forever seperated from their families. White paranoia from the Haitain slave revolt also caused treatment of slaves to go from bad to blatant savagery - teenage boys could be forced to whip their own mothers to death, slaves who back talked could have their tongues cut off, and runaways who were caught could have their toes, even whole feet, chopped off.
There were two reasons for Northern Whites to become increasingly anti slavery in the decades before the civil war - one was the competition for jobs that working class Whites faced from free Black labor - this was the reason Whites in new states like Kansas & California voted themselves free -, the other was increased awareness of slavery's evils from a variety of sources - White missionaries in the South, escaped slaves like Frederick Douglass, and even the trial of The Amistad; a ship full of Black captives that was overtaken and sailed to NYC.
(4) "Diagnosis Schizophrenia" by Dr Rachel Miller and Dr Susan Mason
An interesting book written by two psychiatrist at a hospital ward for Schizophrenia patients on Long Island, New York. It is actually a collection of interviews with real patients in the ward with commentary by the two authors.
A summary of the book is basically a summary of the condition itself: Schizophrenia appears from nowhere from the ages of 18 to 35, signified by sudden thoughts that others are watching you, even planning harm against you; accompanied usually with racing thoughts and totally irrational behavior and thoughts. It strikes men and women and all races equally. The patients at the ward first experienced their symptoms at different places: some attending college, some taking their kids to daycare, etc.
The initial symptoms are usually severe enough that the person is taken by their family to a psychiatrists or even ER, where they are heavily medicated to calm the initial burst. They are then put on lower doses of a long term medication and enter counseling and peer groups. A person diagnosed with Schizophrenia must continue taking some medication for the rest of their lives to keep the symptoms away - there is no cure.
(5) "Aspergers from the inside out" by Michael Carley
Michael Carley is the director of the largest Aspergers Syndrome support group in the US. He was himself diagnosed with AS as an adult after his two year old son was diagnosed with it. The book tells of his personal "journey" with AS, including experiences with members of his support group.
Aspergers Syndrome is genetic based form of Autism. It usually begins manifesting itself visibly in the toddler years. Characteristics of a person with AS are: impaired social skills, intense interest in certain things, impaired motor coordination, rocking motion and body ticks when under stress, all accompanied with an average or above average IQ. AS diagnose has only occurred since the 1980s, although many suspect notable people such as Albert Einstein and Issac Newton had AS.
(6) "Green: your place in the new energy economy" by Jane & Michael Hoffman
This book details both the current problems with energy in the US with the both future renewable sources. It is of the conclusion that different types of renewables must be used to totally replace fossil fuels without reducing our economy.
For the world's transportation (specifically automobile) energy needs they see a mass switch to clean diesel engines powered by biofuels. They favor a move away from sources that are also used as food (like soybeans) to non food plants like camenila beans. While gasoline engines are dominate they favor increasing the amount of ethanol in it, although from sources other than corn, which has a lower energy yeild and requires large amounts of petroleum used to harvest it and for pesticides on it.
For the world's electricity needs that favor a variety of renewable sources, since no place is suitable for all types of them. The Great Plains and all coastlines have great wind farm potential, the desert SouthWest is ideal for large solar farms, while in the rainy Eastern US all dams of any size could be retrofitted for hydropower creation. They dislike nuclear for the large amounts of energy required to go into it to power the uranium, as well as the obvious problem of storing its radioactive wastes.
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