Cactus Tracks & Cowboy Philosophy


Book Description

Author of the comic rodeo novel Hey Cowboy, Wanna Get Lucky?, irregular commentator on NPR, syndicated columnist, and the best-selling cowboy poet in the world now rounds up this hilarious collection of poetry and commentaries that have made him public radio's favorite left-handed former large animal veterinarian. Veterinarian-turned-poet/columnist/raconteur Baxter Black has been making people laugh since his days of doctoring livestock. Now heard and read regularly around the country via his radio and television appearances and hailed by readers for his self-published poetry books, Baxter has left a trail of laughter in his wake. Cactus Tracks & Cowboy Philosophy is the complete illustrated collection of his commentaries that have aired on NPR's Morning Edition. It is the latest dose of the best medicine from this former animal doctor with the wit and soul of a salty sagebrush Shakespeare.




Cactus Tracks and Cowboy Philosophy


Book Description

Described by The Washington Post as being able "to make a dead man sit up and laugh," Baxter Black—veterinarian/doctor turned poet/columnist/raconteur—has been making living people laugh with his novel (Hey Cowboy, Wanna Get Lucky?), syndicated columns, appearances on The Tonight Show, and regular pieces on National Public Radio. Now this complete illustrated collection of the commentaries that have aired on NPR's Morning Edition presents Black's latest dose of medicine for animal and human alike. Ranging from a riotous account of two cowboys chasing down a cow in the nude to a very touching piece about a rancher who loses his wife to cancer and finds out the true worth of his friends and neighbors, Cactus Tracks & Cowboy Philosophy brings together Black's best-known and most adored work.




Hey Cowboy, Wanna Get Lucky?


Book Description

The bestselling novel from America’s premier cowboy poet. Cowboys Lick and Cody are on a quest to qualify for the rodeo national finals—and their widely entertaining, often hilarious adventure includes a smattering of sex, violence, intrigue, and the occasional philosophical rumination. These modern-day cowpokes—two chivalrous knights of the rope and range with a hankering for bucking broncos and for the female of the two-legged species—find much more than they bargained for in Oklahoma City. Against the colorful, flamboyant backdrop of the hard-ridin’, hard-playin’ rodeo circuit, they encounter a city woman named Lilac, with whom Cody falls in love; a bull named Kamikaze; and two corrupt Texas billionaires who bet against Lick. In the vein of a latter-day Will Rogers, Baxter Black combines a colorful yarn with occasional bits of his unique cowboy philosophy and poetry. “It could make a dead man sit up and laugh”—The Washington Post Book World




Horseshoes, Cowsocks & Duckfeet


Book Description

The world’s bestselling cowboy poet and author of Cactus Tracks & Cowboy Philosophy is back in the saddle with a hilarious roundup of essays, commentaries, and campfire verse that speaks to the cowboy soul in each of us. “Baxter Black is Mark Twain served up with a little Groucho Marx.”—The Weekly Standard Share in the wit and wisdom of Baxter Black, public radio’s favorite former large animal veterinarian. Drawn in part from Baxter’s wildly popular NPR commentaries and syndicated columns, Horseshoes, Cowsocks & Duckfeet offers a generous helping of Baxter’s tender yet irreverent, sage-as-sagebrush take on everything from ranching, roping, Wrangler jeans, and rodeos to weddings and romance, the love of a good dog, dancing, parenting, cooking up trouble, and talking about the weather. With illustrations by noted cowboy artists Bob Black, Don Gill, Dave Holl, and Charlie Marsh and a timely foreword by historic cowboy sympathizer Herman Melville, Horseshoes, Cowsocks & Duckfeet will charm your chaps off.




Lessons from a Desperado Poet


Book Description

Part memoir, part how-to, all Baxter Black, Lessons from a Desperado Poet is a humorous, witty take on making a living by doing the right thing and trying everything. According to Baxter Black, success “does not require a genius; it just requires the persistence of a glacier. Remember, often it’s not ability that gets you ahead, it’s reliability. The world is run by those who show up.” Lessons from a Desperado Poet leaves a trail of self-improvement and motivational tortilla crumbs that readers will follow with delight—before, that is, squirreling them away in their own cerebral pockets for later use.




Cowboy Poetry


Book Description

This collection of poems was chosen from among 10, 000 gathered from cowboy reciters, ranch poets and from a library of over 200 published works of cowboy verse. One third of the poems are classics that have proven their vitality by having lived in the hearts and minds of cowboys and ranchers for decades. The remaining two-thirds are new, created within the last few years. "Most cowboy poems speak of real events and people, from bucking horses and cagey cows to old Stetson hats and long winter travels. Although they focus on the ordinary stuff of life, their truths . . . seem no less eternal than those penned by William Shakespeare. Some cowboy poems are bust-a-gut funny; a few are downright dirty . . . most carry an honest, primitive power." --Michael Riley, TIME Magazine




A Cowful of Cowboy Poetry


Book Description

An illustrated collection of over 100 works by the renowned cowboy poet.




Hey, Cowgirl, Need a Ride?


Book Description

A down-and-out rodeo champion follows a mysterious woman on the run with half a million dollars back to the bright lights of Las Vegas in the sequel to Hey, Cowboy, Wanna Get Lucky? “Baxter Black is Mark Twain served up with a little Groucho Marx.”—The Weekly Standard Two years after he won the average at the Las Vegas National Finals Rodeo by riding Kamikaze, the world’s most unridable bull, Lick is down on his luck, working on a ranch in the remote Nevada desert with Al Bean, an ornery old cowboy. Then into their lives crashes Teddie Arizona—T.A.—a woman of mystery who crawls out of the wreckage of her plane with a $500,000 secret. When T.A.’s “husband,” F. Rank Pantaker, dispatches his henchmen to retrieve the money—and the girl—Lick and Al find themselves trying to outrun the bad guys and protect a damsel in distress. Is T.A. out to cheat her cheatin’ husband, or is she really just trying to stop an illegal scheme cooked up by F. Rank and the infamous Ponce de Crayon, Vegas’s most glamorous tiger tamer? Is she playing Lick—or is it love? Will Al Bean’s cockeyed schemes, an able assist from Cody, Lick’s cowboy sidekick, a brigade of old-time rodeo reunioneers, and twenty miles of duct tape be enough to stop F. Rank’s nefarious schemes, reform a career party girl, and change the hearts and minds of ten of the world’s most thrill-seeking billionaires? Can Cody keep Lick from climbing onto raging bull Kamikaze’s back one more time? Can true love triumph over shoot-outs at the not-so-okay corral and close encounters with white tigers? With its colorful cast of characters, rip-roaring humor, and inventive language, this caper will have you riding high long after it gallops to a thunderously satisfying conclusion.




The Last Friend


Book Description

Renowned for his compeling , humane portraits of everyday Arab lives, Tahar Ben Jelloun has affirmed his place in the literary world by winning such awards as the Prix Goncourt and Prix Maghreb. In The Last Friend, Ben Jelloun presents a spellbinding coming-of-age story and a dazzling portrait of Morocco in an era of repression and disillusionment. In Tangiers in the late 1950s, two teenagers, Mamed and Ali, strike up an intense friendship that will last a lifetime. But lurking just beneath the surface is a deep, unspoken jealousy in danger of destroying them both.




Little Big Minds


Book Description

A guide for parents and educators to sharing the enduring ideas of the biggest minds throughout the centuries—from Plato to Jane Addams—with the "littlest" minds. Children are no strangers to cruelty and courage, to love and to loss, and in this unique book teacher and educational consultant Marietta McCarty reveals that they are, in fact, natural philosophers. Drawing on a program she has honed in schools around the country over the last fifteen years, Little Big Minds guides parents and educators in introducing philosophy to K-8 children in order to develop their critical thinking, deepen their appreciation for others, and brace them for the philosophical quandaries that lurk in all of our lives, young or old. Arranged according to themes-including prejudice, compassion, and death-and featuring the work of philosophers from Plato and Socrates to the Dalai Lama and Martin Luther King Jr., this step-by-step guide to teaching kids how to think philosophically is full of excellent discussion questions, teaching tips, and group exercises.