Austin Reviews

The book is an indexed compilation of the newsletters published each February and August by the Austins of America Genealogical Society (AOAGS) during its first ten years. It is the first book in a series of such volumes preserving Austin lines for posterity.

The AOAGS is an organization of people involved in Austin family research, both in the United States, and abroad. One intent of the organization is to publish the valuable research of its members, and to provide a vehicle whereby this research can be organized, indexed and presented to others doing similar research, so that resources can be pooled, and problems shared and solved.

Another objective of the organization is to publish reprints of articles that originally appeared in journals, newspapers, local histories and the like, and which have received only limited circulation. Such reprints, selected whenever the original is of genealogical or historical interest to Austin research, assure that their contents will result in exposure to the greater Austin research community.

The book is handsomely hard-cover bound in a durable red fabric, and imprinted in gold. It contains 354 pages, of which 42 are devoted to an excellent index which separately lists names and places. Articles include family histories, vital records extracts, wills, deeds, miscellaneous records, reviews of applicable published literature, and queries sent in my AOAGS members. Extensive use is made of photography, most of it of older priceless pictures of people and the places in which they lived, which nicely compliment the usual genealogical text.

A major project of the organization is to extract every Austin from the Federal Census of 1850. At the present time, 16 states out of the 32 admitted to the Union prior to the 1850 census have been completed and the results periodically appear throughout the book.

The book has proved invaluable to this reviewer on numerous occasions in my personal Austin research, on some occasions, providing breakthrough information in extending my Austin lines. The human nature of the information contained in the book has also provided a counterpart to the otherwise drab genealogical data: birth, marriage, death, etc. The book is heartily recommended to all Austin researchers, and we look forward to the publication of Volume 2.

Mitchelson's study of the life of Sherlock Holmes is no work of fantasy; based fair and square on the facts, as related by Dr Watson and other Holmes critics and commentators, the result is a cracking good yarn that pulls up the accepted beliefs about Holmes and takes a good look at the roots. Holmes' unhappy childhood, dependence on drugs, and criminal activities are examined in depth, leaving the reader in no doubt that our preconceptions of Holmes, and his portrayal in the media, are very wide of the mark. To read this book is to challenge one's faith in the great detective's ability... but it is an important document, too, since it exonnerates several "crime lords" and "criminal masterminds" of the late Victorian period. I thoroughly recommend this book to any serious Sherlock Holmes fan. Chapter seven, especially, is breathtaking.

Readers in grades 5-7 will find this 'New Perspectives' series addition stands alone as an excellent survey of history surrounding the Berlin Wall in general and Eastern Europe in particular. The Berlin Wall uses different viewpoints to tell of how the wall was built, how it affected the peoples' lives, and how it came down. Politics is clearly explained and explored.

This book is loaded with color pictures of numerous birds from around the world..I found pictures of birds in this book that I couldn't find in my other bird books (I have many). Though it's an older book,it's a useful addition to my bird reference library. Definitely worth buying if you like pictorial bird books.

A. O. Spare is a watcher at the gates, and will cast assprsions at all who grovel. Stand and be Man, or do not.

The images in this book (created via automatic drawing) are some of the best examples of occult artwork. Just staring into the images is awakening some of the Zos Kia Cultus. Buy this book, the longer you wait the more it will cost. And unlike most aged [things], this book will always be valuable for what it is.

This book tells everything you want to know about singing.My voice sounded very insecure until I used these techniques and now it is full and confident.I would recommend it to anyone who has dreams of singing or just for your own personal enjoyment.

The husband and wife team give an excellent view of he treatments and follow up of what to do after treatment. He is the doctor who does the research. She is the person with breast cancer and her choices, and why she chose as she did. And what she is doing now to try and prevent a reoccurence.

There always seems a new way of looking at the Farm Security Administration photos of the Depression. I've already got 'Plain Pictures of Plain Doctoring: Vernacular Expression in New Deal Medicine and Photography' (MIT 1985) and 'An American Journey: Images of Railroading During the Depression' (Hot Box Press 2000) and this excellent book is the first to show dozens of great photos of children (and teenagers).

The author's explain in the intro that at the nadir of the Depression about a quarter of the workforce were unemployed and because no child labor laws had been passed this huge number included some children, especially in agriculture. Most of the photos in this book show children in a rural setting, where it was expected that they would help their parents increase the family income.

Sixteen of the FSA photographers work is included and the author's have searched for photos that are seldom or have never been published before and this is one reason I liked the book, another is the large format landscape size. All the images have a short caption, date, photographer's name and Library of Congress negative file number. There are a couple of slightly annoying production points: the lack of page numbers, even though there is a contents page with a page number for each of the seven chapters and the ten pages of introduction are numbered but with roman numerals.

Fortunately not all the photos show hard times and despair, one chapter, called Playing, shows kids having fun, another, Living, has a 1940 Marion Post Wolcott shot of five laughing teenagers folding newspapers on a front lawn in Natchitoches, Louisiana. As you would expect though most of the rest of these sensitively taken photos do show children just having to make do in those extraordinary years.

If you collect books of FSA output or just want to see some great descriptive photos of the past 'Children of the Depression' is well worth getting.

China Diary: The Life Of Mary Austin Endicott is the remarkable account of a missionary wife whose husband felt the call to service mainland China. In 1947, Jim Endicott was accused of treason and thus began the greatest test of her marriage, her faith, and her children, both born and adopted. This impressively presented biography, written by Shirley Jane Endicott (Mary Austin Endicott's daughter), offers an informed and informative look into a turbulent China, as well as insights into the soul of a most resourceful and fascinating Canadian woman.