texas christian university press mär 2001 (3 Ergebnisse)

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - The Guadalupe River Drive in the Texas Hill Country, now approaching its 100th anniversary, began as a small path carved from the rocky hillside. Today called River Road, this popular tourist destination is enjoyed by both residents of and visitors to New Braunfels.In Hill Country Backroads: Showing the Way in Comal County, Laurie E. Jasinski explores the time when roads such as the Guadalupe River Drive were unknown and unexplored. A time when it was nearly impossible to reach your destination without having to change a few tires or find a team of mules to pull you out of the mud. A time when a journey was an adventure.Jasinski spent nearly a decade researching the early history of motoring and tourism in the area. Hill Country Backroads combines the setting of the Hill Country in the early 1900s with a historical narrative of Joe Sanders, Jasinki's grandfather, who was central to making the countryside of Comal County accessible to visitors and residents. Sanders improved travel in the area by creating the first scenic map of Comal County and implementing a system of road signs to label the county's confusing byways. Sanders' passion for travel and his attempt to show others how to enjoy life are driving forces throughout the book.Sanders' scenic maps of the area are reproduced along with original photographs of the characters, landscape, and automobiles of the period. Interviews with people who knew Sanders provide fascinating insight into this man and his contributions to Hill Country tourism.Hill Country Backroads combines two distinct but interwoven elements: the setting of the Hill Country in the early 1900s and the life of Joe Sanders. This rich compilation of historical events and human interaction is irresistible.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - If you've never even been to Southeast Asia, can you be a Vietnam veteran In a novel that captures the life and times of a generation, Mark Busby takes us on a journey through an era of hippies, the shootings at Kent State University, integration, and Woodstock. Fort Benning Blues tells the story of Vietnam from this side of the ocean.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - Lionel Garcia believes that no one should read a short story and be the same person afterward. The fifteen stories in this collection have that effect. They will affect each reader differently but leave none untouched.These stories focus on South Texas' Hispanic culture most frequentlybut not always. It is a world Garcia knows well, and he portrays its complexities with a clearly realistic and often bemused eye.In some stories he sees his subjects with a gentle vision that stops just short of sentimentalityin "Alone," Constancia, lonely after years of divorce, nearly throws herself at the plumber, with surprising results. In "Always Verbena," Beatrice and Antonio are reunited after tragedy and years of cowardice have separated them. Sometimes Garcia veers off into the hilariously funny, such as "West Texas Cowboys," where inept cowboys use dynamite to blast postholes in a mountainand blow the top off the mountain. Or the title story where an insane uncle, about to be taken to an institution by the sheriff, is protected by his guardian and aunt. The final scene becomes a wild tangle of people tripping over one another, all searching for the missing uncle. Sometimes Garcia's vision of his world is grimly realisticin "Girl" a bipolar woman indulges in a monologue as she recounts her bizarre marital history and sex life. But Garcia's imagination can also lead him to the surrealin "The Wedding," a stranger stumbles into a home where a woman keeps her husband prisoner in his bedroom. The story ends with a surprise twist. Some stories demonstrate the confusion between Hispanic and Anglo culturesin "Mammogram," River Oaks meets illegal alien in a sketch that will make you smile. In "The Sergeant" the confusion takes on more serious overtones because the Latin protagonist believes everything American is perfect. The truth is a bitter lesson. Garcia writes in his introduction that short stories should begin and end, "in a flash." These stories do.