The Bookshelf, The Parlor, The Young Texas Reader, and the Monthly

The Texas Bookshelf is different from the The Texas Parlor, http://texasparlor.blogspot.com/ . The Texas Parlor carries "general" bookish information and non-book information and even different Texana news and notes of use to the bibliographically challenged and other nosey folks intersted in historical, literary, and cultural observations. Will's Texana Monthly may carry material from either blog, but extends itself beyond those, especially for longer compilations or treatments. The Monthly, the Bookshelf and the Parlor are all companions. So, is the Young Texas Reader http://youngtexasreader.blogspot.com/ which specialized on books and such things for the youngest to the teenagers.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

What's Right About America - Kay Granger


What’s Right About America: Celebrating Our Nation’s Values.


By U.S. Representative Kay Granger from out were the West begins, foreword by Sarah Ferguson, Duchesse of York. Los Angeles: World Ahead Pub., 2006. Paper over boards with a jacket. No illus. ISBN 0-97778984-0-7. 119 pp. $21.95. http://www.worldahead.com/


This Congresswoman since 1997 divides her 12 chapters into three sections: Life, Liberty, and (yes) the Pursuit of Happiness. Therein she reveals our values in the individual, family, community, service, equality, justice, compassion, religious freedom, responsibility, progress, courage, and vision – not a bad platform. She concludes that we value our values. The appendices contain the Declaration of Independence and the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Dwight Eisenhower, and Surgeon General Dr. Antonia Novello.


The 12 chapters are initiated with quotations from folks such as Captain Scott O’Grady, Ben Franklin, and Eleanor Roosevelt who then become the model for the “value” discussed. If there is a Texana chapter, it is “Progress” focused on Neil Armstrong. Shelve this one beside Senator Kay Hutchison’s American Heroines and Leading Ladies. Granger’s photo shows a happy, confident, competent blonde, and in Texas that’s senatorial qualifications.