Juggling, Jacksons, & Jefferson Bass ( #AtoZChallenge )

 

       Juggling just seems like an obvious book choice for this letter.  Yes, I do have several books on juggling and those of you who know anything about me know that I am a juggler and have an interest in the art.  Of course I would have some juggling books even though it's not a category most people would think of exploring.  Really, though, there are a lot of books about juggling and I have several.  Keep looking through the shelves and you'll find some other entries for 'J'...

      

Jackson history  (Colonel Edward Jackson:  Revolutionary Soldier)

       My actual last name being Jackson makes books about my family history of definite interest to me.  Fortunately my aunt Nancy Jackson and another relative Linda Brake Myers compiled this hefty history of over 1100 pages detailing the family lineage from their first arrival in the Americas in 1756 up to the 1990s when this book was published.  This highly detailed book is a real gem.  Probably difficult to find--I'm not sure how many copies were published--but I'm proud to have such a fine book on my family's history on my father's side.  And I'm named in the book as are my children!

Stonewall Jackson by James Robertson

         This famed Confederate general would be a distant cousin to me on our family tree.  My relationship to him has been confirmed by DNA testing.  Despite the choice he made in the Civil War, Stonewall is still highly acclaimed as one of the greatest military strategists in history.  There are several books about him, but this is the only one I own.  I started to read it a number of years ago but then stopped for some reason.  It's time for me to go back to reading this biography.

Juggling The Art and Its Artists by Ziethen & Allen

       Most of the juggling books I have are somewhat smaller books about how to juggle or different juggling tricks.  Typically they are cheaply made paperback books so most of these are not on my bookshelves.  However the Juggling book by Ziethen & Allen (a writing team made for A to Z) has a place on display in my collection.  This is primarily a picture book from 1985 that mostly depicts European jugglers of whom I am not familiar.  But there are some jugglers I've met and the photos are very nice.  A good coffee table book I guess.  Maybe even a collectors' item of sorts.

Jugglers' Bulletins

       Speaking of collectors books, here is a one of a kind book that I had custom bound by a book binder in Richmond VA back in 1977 or so.  I had visited the former editor of the bulletin of the International Jugglers Association, Roger Montandon who was living in Oklahoma at the time, and he indicated that he had all the back copies of the bulletin from the forties to mid-fifties.  I was very interested in collecting juggling materials at the time so I bought a set of these back issues that were just loose paper copies.  To keep them in good order I decided to have them bound.  Maybe someone else has also done this, but I seriously doubt that it looks like my copy.  I ordered it special.  I wonder what this might be worth to some serious collector?

Jefferson Bass

       This should go under the letter 'B' you say?  Well, actually no because this "author" is actually two people--author Jon Jefferson and Dr Bill Bass.  There are several books in this series of forensic crime novels.  Aside from the books being good, I was drawn to these books because Dr. Bass was my anthropology professor at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.  He was one of my favorite professors as he was entertaining as well as informative.  Bass is renown as a forensic scientist who has been called in to solve many crimes.  He is also known for his studies of decomposition of corpses through is work at the Body Farm in Knoxville.  Great series for anyone who enjoys good crime writing with solid science to back them.  Flesh & Bone and Carved In Bone are but two of the books that I have, but if I really dug I'd probably find a few more.

      Has anyone in your family published genealogies of your lineage?    Do you enjoy researching your family history?  Have you read any of the books in the Body Farm series?