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If you enjoy reading this blog, you may also like to read the articles I write each week as the Springfield Genealogy Examiner and as the Ozarks Cultural Heritage Examiner. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss a one. You may also enjoy reading about the family stories in my novels at The Homeplace Series blog. You can sign up for e-mail reminders.

Monday, June 17, 2013

It's Monday, What are You Reading? Mastering Genealogical Proof



It's Monday, What are You Reading?
Mastering Genealogical Proof 
by Thomas W. Jones


This post is the sixty-second entry for this meme suggested by Sheila@ One Persons Journey Through A World of Books. [Entries 22-25 in the series were posted at  the Dr. Bill Tells Ancestor Stories]

My oldest daughter, Annette, was good enough to get me a copy for Father's Day, and got one for herself at the same time. I had written about the book earlier, and am looking forward to spending more time with it.

From the website for the book, at The National Genealogical Society:

"Mastering Genealogical Proof aims to help researchers, students and new family historians reconstruct relationships and lives of people they cannot see. It presents content in digestible chunks. Each chapter concludes with problems providing practice for proficiently applying the chapter's concepts. Those problems, like examples throughout the book, use real records, real research, and real issues. Answers are at the back along with a glossary of technical terms and and extensive resource list."

You can order your copy from the link, above.


[Cross-posted on Dr. Bill Tells Ancestor Stories blog]

Happy Reading!

Dr. Bill  ;-)

Monday, June 10, 2013

It's Monday, What are You Reading? The Presidents Club


It's Monday, What are You Reading? The Presidents Club

The Presidents Club: Inside the World's Most Exclusive Fraternity
by Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy


This post is the sixty-first entry for this meme suggested by Sheila@ One Persons Journey Through A World of Books. [Entries 22-25 in the series were posted at  the Dr. Bill Tells Ancestor Stories]


My oldest daughter, Annette, was good enough to get this fun book for me, on my Kindle, for Father's Day.  I love good books about the American Presidency. This is well researched and well written. Very insightful!


Book Description from Amazon.com:

The Presidents Club, established at Dwight Eisenhower’s inauguration by Harry Truman and Herbert Hoover, is a complicated place: its members are bound forever by the experience of the Oval Office and yet are eternal rivals for history’s favor. Among their secrets: How Jack Kennedy tried to blame Ike for the Bay of Pigs. How Ike quietly helped Reagan win his first race in 1966. How Richard Nixon conspired with Lyndon Johnson to get elected and then betrayed him. How Jerry Ford and Jimmy Carter turned a deep enmity into an alliance. The unspoken pact between a father and son named Bush. And the roots of the rivalry between Clinton and Barack Obama.
Time magazine editors and presidential historians Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy offer a new and revealing lens on the American presidency, exploring the club as a hidden instrument of power that has changed the course of history.






Happy Reading!

Dr. Bill  ;-)

Monday, June 3, 2013

It's Monday, What are You Reading? Surrender the Wind


It's Monday, What are You Reading?

Surrender the Wind by Rita Gerlach


This post is the sixtieth entry for this meme suggested by Sheila@ One Persons Journey Through A World of Books. [Entries 22-25 in the series were posted at  the Dr. Bill Tells Ancestor Stories]


This "inspirational historical romance novel" was on my Kindle when I was sort of 'in between' books. It started out in the Virginia backwoods near the end of the Revolutionary War… the first chapter caught my attention, and I was hooked…  ;-)


Book Description from Amazon.com:
Publication Date: August 1, 2009:

(Inspirational Historical Romance) A quick~match tale of unexpected love . . . A fuse that burned rapidly. A tale of love and betrayal in Georgian England.

When Juleah Braxton meets her best friend's American brother, he is nothing what she imagined he would be. He is battle scared from the Revolution, determined to restore his father's home in Virginia when he unexpectedly inherits his grandfather's estate in faraway England. Juleah's independent spirit and gentle soul wins Seth's heart and she becomes lady of the manor, enraging the man who sought her hand and schemed to make Ten Width his own.



Happy Reading!

Dr. Bill  ;-)

Monday, May 27, 2013

It's Monday, What are You Reading? Robert D Ray - An Iowa Treasure



It's Monday, What are You Reading?

 Robert D Ray - An Iowa Treasure


This post is the fifty-ninth entry for this meme suggested by Sheila@ One Persons Journey Through A World of Books. [Entries 22-25 in the series were posted at  the Dr. Bill Tells Ancestor Stories]


Nancy got this book for me in advance of Father's Day. I worked for Governor Ray for four of his sixteen years as Governor of Iowa, back in the 1970, two on his personal staff. He did so much more in the State of Iowa after he left office, as well. Many of those days are recognized in the timeline included in this very neat book.


Book Description from Amazon.com:


Robert D. Ray An Iowa Treasure - A photographic journey of the life and travels of former Governor of Iowa Robert D. Ray. The book includes photos of him, and taken by him, as a public servant, humanitarian, community leader, conservationist, and world traveler. Proceeds go to assist the funding of the Keep Iowa Beautiful Organization.


Order direct from "Keep Iowa Beautiful" here: http://www.keepiowabeautiful.com/keep-iowa-beautiful/robert-d-ray-an-iowa-treasure

or at Amazon.com:




Happy Reading! ;-)

Monday, May 20, 2013

It's Monday, What are You Reading? Drift by Rachel Maddow




It's Monday, What are You Reading?

Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power 
by Rachel Maddow


This post is the fifty-eighth entry for this meme suggested by Sheila@ One Persons Journey Through A World of Books. [Entries 22-25 in the series were posted at  the Dr. Bill Tells Ancestor Stories]


I read the Kindle edition of this book. Excellent read, but a bit unsettling. Looks of data we would like to ignore… which, of course, is a major part of the problem being discussed.


Book Description from Amazon.com:

Written with bracing wit and intelligence, Rachel Maddow's Drift argues that we've drifted away from America's original ideals and become a nation weirdly at peace with perpetual war. To understand how we've arrived at such a dangerous place, Maddow takes us from the Vietnam War to today's war in Afghanistan, along the way exploring Reagan's radical presidency, the disturbing rise of executive authority, the gradual outsourcing of our war-making capabilities to private companies, the plummeting percentage of American families whose children fight our constant wars for us, and even the changing fortunes of G.I. Joe. Ultimately, she shows us just how much we stand to lose by allowing the scope of American military power to overpower our political discourse.
   Sensible yet provocative, dead serious yet seri­ously funny, Drift will reinvigorate a "loud and jangly" political debate about our vast and confounding national security state.





Happy Reading!

Dr. Bill  ;-)

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Tuesday's Tip - Murder by the Homeplace - Book Blog Tour


Tuesday's Tip
"Murder at the Homeplace"
Book Blog Tour


This is the first Book Blog Tour for The Homeplace Series, a continuing Family Saga, another historical fiction book.

This week we feature the most recent addition to the series, Murder at the Homeplace, a novella by William Leverne Smith. It's place in the series, in timing, is shortly following Back to the Homeplace, in the fall of 1987.

A secondary character in Back to the Homeplace is discovered dead near Oak Creek in the opening sequence. The reporter, Penny Nixon, for the local paper, the Oak Springs Enterprise, gets on the story, but gets almost too close to the murderer…

"If you haven't read it, it is new to you!"  WLS


Available in print or kindle editions:




List of the tour stops - this week

May 15 - Wednesday

Julie Goucher
Angler's Rest
http://anglersrest.blogspot.com/

May 16 - Thursday

Brandee
Bookworm Brandiee
http://bookwormbrandee.blogspot.ca/

May 17 - Friday

Mindy Wall
Books, Books, and More Books
http://dream-reader-dreamer2229.blogspot.com/


May 18 - Saturday

WrapUp at The Homeplace Series blog
http://thehomeplaceseries.blogspot.com/


Happy Reading!  ;-)

Monday, May 13, 2013

It's Monday, What are You Reading? Echoes from the Cliffs



Echoes from the Cliffs of Capitol Reef National Park
Reminiscences from Max E. Robinson and Clay M. Robinson

 This post is the fifty-seventh entry for this meme suggested by Sheila@ One Persons Journey Through A World of Books. [Entries 22-25 in the series were posted at  the Dr. Bill Tells Ancestor Stories]

We picked up this little book at the Capital Reef Book Store a few years ago…
It was published in 2005 to be sold at the book store, it appears… no ISBN #, for example.

This little book is a collection of eights short stories about some of the early residents of the area in and around what is now Capitol Reef National Park.

These two brothers were born in the early 1920s to parents who lived in the area. The father was a mostly a teacher and school principal, and had a mail contract in the early years that allowed them to travel throughout the area and meet the residents, many of whom were relatives. They especially share interesting stories of ranches and towns that generally no longer in existence. Many early photos in sepia are very effective in enhancing the stories. The book is only 64 pages long but does a fine job doing what it set out to do.



Happy Reading!

Dr. Bill  ;-)