Peace Came in the Form of a Woman reveals the woman's role in the Caddo culture for inviting other tribes and foreigners into peaceful relations with them. Caddos included women in the vangard of a peaceful approach to other tribes or foreigners. Unwittingly, the Spanish approached the Caddo with the Virgin Mary's image on a banner. The Caddo interpreted this to mean the Spanish were approaching them with peaceful intentions.

To find out how this played out between the Spanish and the Caddo, one must read the book. Bar's research into the role of women between Indian and Spanish encounters provides some surprising twists.

Juliana Barr is assistant professor of history at the University of Florida. ~ Hud

The Pulitzer Prize winning biography of Sam Houston, The Raven, by Marquis James captures the essence of a man marked by destiny. Beginning with Houston's forebears' mutiny to save their possessions from a greedy captain to his last days in Texas, James blithely narrates the adventures of a wayward boy showing no compunction for farming or store tending. Houston runs away from home, is adopted by Cherokee Chief OO-loo-te-ka, and christened "The Raven" of Cherokee mythology. His teen years mold a love for Nature embraced by these "children of the forest."

As a young man, Houston survives a near lethal battlefield injury received in a courageous charge that captures Andrew Jackson's attention and forges a lifetime bond between them. Shortly after Houston becomes Governor of Tennessee, his marriage and governorship mysteriously unravel. Houston seeks escape among his Cherokee brothers, then eventually goes to Texas.

An unlikely leader, Houston rises to lead a ragtag army in the war for Texas Independence. His service as President of the Texas Republic, then Senator and Governor of the State is epic legend. James masterfully weaves the imagery of powerful events with Houston's bigger than life antics, enthralling and teasing the reader's imagination.

The Raven probes Houston's complex nature revealing a man at once mercurial, honorable and snarly, courageous and irresponsible, lovable and irreverent. The bittersweet conclusion leaves one wondering why James' book has not yet made it to the big screen.

Marquis James (August 29, 1891 - November 19, 1955), an American journalist and author twice awarded the Pulitzer Prize. He died suddenly at the age of sixty-four of a cerebral hemorrhage. He was working on a biography of Brooker T. Washington at the time of his death. ~ BJ