Linda Francis Lee - Interview

Dresses, Debutantes and Designer Shoes: Alumna Pens a Name for Texas Tech :  Author Linda Francis Lee recalls her West Texas roots in latest novels.  -  Written by Kristina Butler - it begins

Alumna Linda Francis Lee is the author of 19 novels. Her book "The Devil in the Junior League" has been optioned as a movie, starring Jennifer Garner. Photo courtesy Linda Francis Lee.

"For author and Texas Tech alumna Linda Francis Lee, letting her roots show doesn't mean an emergency appointment with the hairdresser.

Born in El Paso, Lee's family history is steeped in West Texas tradition. Her heritage and knowledge of Texas high society is evident in her latest round of books, "The Devil in the Junior League" and "The Ex-Debutante," which feature an elite, pearl-wearing crowd of sophisticates who are members of the fictitious Junior League of Willow Creek.

"Most of my books have come out of the fact that I am a Texan," she said. "When you are born and raised in Texas, you are always a Texan." "

 

READ THE FULLER ARTICLE TEXAS TECH AT

http://today.ttu.edu/2008/07/dresses-debutantes-and-designer-shoes-alumna-pens-a-name-for-texas-tech/

Lenora Worth - Interview

Lena Dooley interviews Lenora Worth, a Christian writer, who discusses her role in the book series "Homecoming Heroes" set in a fictional town near Austin and Worth's book Lone Star Secret within the series.

http://www.lenoraworth.com  or http://www.loveinspiredauthors.com

READ MORE OF THE Lena Dooley's article at

http://lenanelsondooley.blogspot.com/2008/07/author-lenora-worth-lone-star-secret.html

Texas Heir - Linda Warren

A reviews at Cat Romance

"Once again award winning author Linda Warren grabs her readers' attention with another must read, TEXAS HEIR.

Cari Michaels worked her way up to the vice presidency of Dalton's Department Stores, a family owned business. She also had her eye on the CEO of Dalton's, Reed Preston. But her dream of a future together evaporates the day Preston announces his engagement to another woman. Cari is resolved to work harder and forget her illusive pipe dream."  READ MORE at the link

http://cataromance.com/?p=821

About the Book: Genre: contemporary ISBN: 978-0373752300 PageCount:224 Price: $4.99 Reviewer: Donna
	SensualityRating: Sensuous Star Rating: 5 Stars Author's Website: http://www.lindawarren.net/

Historic Texas Book of Days - Yvonne Bruce

Historic Texas Book of Days. By Yvonne Bruce and Ann Bruce Henaff.  Albany, Texas: Bright Sky Press, 2008.  Hardback, ISBN 978-1-931721-96-7
squarishly 6-3/4 x 6-3/4, 128 pp. 150 watercolor illustrations  $19.95 http://brightskypress.com

Bruce, the retired librarian and font of Texas life, and Henaff, the artist, present you with a very pleasant volume to ease and encourage your days.  This calendar book, a week to a page-spread, is applicable to any year.  The visual experience washes your eyes gently with its soft watercolors and line drawings colored in earth tones.  The months are color-toned, blue January, brown August, and so.  Most illustrations and complementary text derive from domestic, gardening, and rural life.  Occasional quotations peek forth like early periwinkles.  Botanica scatter through the pages, pecans, wildflowers, sugar cane, cotton, magnolias, and fields of farm greenery. 

Period architecture and domestic decoration complete the scenes.  But the authors must have summered along the coast, as evidenced by their July quartet of lighthouses, handful of seashells, and school of saltwater fish.

Basic early recipes and gardening tips add enhance the tome's social life and customs historic theme.  In fact, planting advice from the 1879 Burke's Texas Almanac and Immigrant's Handbook appears regularly.

Unbridled Cowboy - Joseph Fussell

 Unbridled Cowboy. By Joseph B. Fussell, edited by E.R. Fussell. Kirksville, Mo: Truman State University Press, 2008 Paperback Price:$19.95 ISBN:9781931112772 http://tsup.truman.edu

Joe, almost 80 when he died, lived a life fuller than most can image. Joe's astounding record, he tells you, is mostly true, and he'll let you know otherwise. Joe did not admire school and home chores despite a good family around Tyler and Kerens. Leaving his East Texas home as a teenager, Joe tromped Texas, the Plains, the mountains, the Southwest, California, and Mexico, got jobs, cowboyed, railroaded, worked livery, farmed, hoboed, got into scrapes, dipped on the other side of the law at times, sought revenge, went as an undercover Ranger once, chased an occasional woman, got himself further civilized and educated, and, yes, finally got himself a family, living a fairly quite and proper life.

At one point, he relates "I waged a one-man war just as I have related it here…. I offer no apologies to anyone for what I did and I'm not trying to ease my conscience. I was reared in an environment where men settled their differences man-to-man, without the aid of so-called constituted law."

His descriptions of violence and law-breaking (his and others) are not salacious, but more matter

of fact. Unbridled Cowboy is a delightful, rambunctious read, a sort of memoir, but, well, sometimes, life is a kick in the pants. A great story, invitingly written, and genuine as morning served with coffee at a gingham tablecloth. E.R. edited "Gramps" autobiography for us, and that joy should be visited on anybody wishing a touch of warmth and compassion. You can learn much from the narrative, but buy it because it's a wonderful read.

A Few Good Horses - Pierce Burns

A Few Good Horses, by Pierce Burns. Austin: Gap Creek Press (12109 Shetland Chase, 78727), 2008. Well designed back hardback and excellent cover. ISBN 9780615164892. $24.95, 174 pp. Notes, index, many  photos. http://www.pierceburns.com

Burns, who now lives in Austin and visits the ranch, offers more than a few good chapters on his family's heritage through smooth, readable prose, and the reader's sense of being there pervade the social life and customs of many folks, not just those in about Brown County and the Hill Country.

Although the recounting reaches back to the 1840's and forward to the 1940's, the best

and main focus is his life during the Teens, Twenties and Depression. He begins the tome as a

five-year-old boy, Christmas 1939, in the presence of "heroes, giants, and saints" at his

grandfather's knee. And there're blue northers, a secret marriage ("We gotta tell Daddy we're

married. We can't go on like this"), careful food calculating (people and livestock), circuses in

Brownwood, swimming in the mountain creek, the school bus incident, Sunday Best, building

the fence ("Needs to go another six inches"), and Papa and Uncle Billy's building of the ranch

and distant expeditions despite hard times. It was a time of Tall women, going about birthing,

clothing, rounding up cattle and sheep. By the way, they did find the lump of silver left after the

grandparents' house burned.

The chapter, "Killing Hogs and Canning Food," takes me back to my father's killing

chickens and my mother's preserving figs. The grace and precision of the descriptions there, and

throughout the volume, suggest the author's keen memory and technical bend (he holds patents).

And the volume is patently good. It touches the heart, mind, and a documentary

testament to real life.

Get Mike Cox's opinion at http://www.lonestarbooks.blogspot.com

Telephone Road - Burton Chapman

Telephone Road, Texas: A History and Guide to Telephone Road and

Southeast Houston. By Burton Chapman. Friendswood: Baxter Press, 2007.

Paperback, 157 pages, many black and white photos. $15.95 ISBN 978-1-

888237-78-8 http://www.telephoneroadtexas.com

Chapman's born and educated in Houston, but he's drifted south to Pearland which is at the south end of Telephone Road.

For those unaware of the world's major travelways, Telephone Road roughly parallels Houston's Gulf Freeway for a few miles both north and south of the 610 South Loop. Folks living there go way back, even to the sparse ranching days of the 1800's. 

Chapman's chapters suggest some of the major widely-known landmarks: Christy Brothers

Circus, Hobby Airport, Gulfgate Mall, and the Manned Spacecraft Center. Some now fading

from memory (but less so with this book) are the Sam Allen Ranch, Galveston-Houston

Interurban, Christy Brothers Circus, and the Golfcrest Country Club, etc.

From these and other chapters, Chapman selects for is final 11th chapter 20 "Interesting Places."

Yes, he's got the Orange Show, Tel-Wink Grill, the Typewriter and Adding Machine Exchange,

the Ukranian Orthodox Monastery of the Four Evangelists, and a good eatery Loma Linda's

Mexican Restaurant.

He does more than point and identify, he gives history. For example, the Santa Rosa Theater

once was THE place to go, really a classy, family place, and then it declined until its screen

displayed flailing body parts in unclassy settings. It fell to demolition.

But thanks to Chapman, Telehphone Road lives and remembers.

Free Texas - Tab Lloyd

2Free Texas: Free Things to See and Do in the Lone Star State. By Tab Lloyd. Xavier Publishing House, 2008. Paperback, 268 pages, $24.95. ISBN: 978-0-9790-

2272-2 268 pg http://www.xavier-house.com

Tab Lloyd spent considerable time and, even more importantly, thought to what to include. There are over 120 places identified here in several categories – churches, famous people, trade, art, beer and wine, farms and gardens, outside, military, historical places, historical museums, and, of course, unique places. Each gets a page that begins with contact and website. Whether by advertence or inadvertence, she's selected good places, some of which you've not heard of but will appeal to your very heart.

For instance, out in Lubbock there's the Breedlove Dehydrated Foods plant. Hold on, just listen a minute. Well, it is the biggest dehydration plant in the world, Tab tells us, and, and this part I really like, "Breedlove gives their food away," and Guinness recognizes them as largest food charity bank in the world.  Tab also takes you to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Fort Worth, where they do not give the green stuff away. But in Dallas at the Mary Kay Museum you can see all the pink you desire, and maybe get beautiful and rich at the same time. Then head south to Corpus Christi for the Texas Surf Museum; no it's not old surf, it old surfing artifacts and photos. But it would take a lotta surf to fill up Odessa's Meteor Crater found in 1892 (did they fall in?) and said to be the 2nd largest meteor crater in the U.S. at 550' across.  One day I've got to go to the First State Bank of Uvalde; it's all decorated up by Janey Briscoe just about any way she wanted; that being before she decorated the Governor's Mansion. I have been to the Edison Museum in Beaumont – rather nice too, thanks, Tab, for the memory. Lastly, I've also seen the modified English gothic architecture of St. Paul's United Methodist Church in Houston. As a matter, a few year's back I used to quietly slip into the back of the sanctuary on Wednesday nights after work to listen to the organist practice while the soaring walls were barely visible in the darkness. And it was free.

Texas Curiosities - John Kelso

 Texas Curiosities: Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities & Other Offbeat Stuff, 3rd ed. By John Kelson.  Guilford, Conn.: Insiders Guide / Globe Pequot Press, 2007. pbk ____ pages ISBN 0-7627-4109-0 $13.95  http://www.globepequot.com

The Austin Statesman humor columnist, John Kelso is an oddball specialist and he holds forth on

odd-to-pleasant special things across the state's eight regions. Learn about Dallas' Cow

Goddess, Beaumont's Big Bopper, Eldorado's polygamy, Groom's 2nd tallest cross in the

Western Hemisphere, and Houston's Funeral Museum. Ponder the connections in Kelsoland.

As a gesture to normalcy, Kelso adds sidebars of history to the 200 important things.

Harvest of Tears - Betty Smith

Harvest of Tears, 2nd edition. Betty Pelley Smith. Denton: Zone Press, 2007. Paperback, 399 pages. ISBN 0-9777558-5-1 $18.95  http://www.zonepress.com

Betty Pelly Smith was born in the Sherman, Texas of 1924 and subsequently lived across the nation. Two decades ago she returned to Sherman. The childhood she would like to recall would be almost

idyllic. She had kind and loving parents, watchful neighbors, a supportive faith family.

But, the social pestilence of the Depression visited the community and over-stayed its welcome.

As jobs vanished, the stark twins of reality and fear ate rough spots on the veneer of civilization.

Some folks got desperate. A deeper poison seeps to the surface. That racism scarred her soul

that happened to be sheathed in a white skin. Smith writes, "I was 5 years old when I saw the

Sherman courthouse burn and saw a body hanging from a tree. In my 5-year-old mind, I

remember thinking, I thought he was black. All I see is white, as only white bones were hanging

there. I was haunted all my life by this sight. I could not understand how anyone could do such a

horrible thing." The legacy of the Sherman Race Riots flickered more oft than it should have in

Smith's long life.

Her fictionalized account of other such days lures the reader onward as the naïve, little girl's

eyewitness account describes her experiences. In the story, Elizabeth, the substitute for Betty's

emotions, personally faces the physical violence meted out to the designated scapegoats. As for

the plot, Elizabeth's family cares for the children, while Elizabeth's African American friend, Sam, becomes the target of Sam, the malevolent bully.  Challenging to adults but could be introduced to mature teenagers.

Elvis Takes a Back Seat - Leanna Ellis

 

Elvis Takes a Back Seat. By Leanna Ellis (aka Leanna Wilson).

Nashville: B&H Pub. Group, 2008. 314 pages, pbk, $14.99.

http://www.bhpublishinggroup.com/

Ellis' work is a Christian woman's fictional adventure. The back cover blurb

plainly states, "Leanna Ellis has sold more than one million books …." The

setting is around Dallas. Claudia's husband makes a last request and dies.

Elvis didn't really ride with Claudia, but a three-foot bust does. She and her

friends stow Elvis in the Cadillac's back seat and are off for a road trip to

Memphis. They discover pieces of themselves and others along the way,

while quoting scripture from the Good Book, Southern Living, and Graceland

lyrics. Their tears and laughter keep readers moving. They get back and have a garage sale, and

Claudia thanks God for answering "the cry of my heart," before she'd even prayed for it.

Justice, Texas Style

The Houston Press brings you Craig Malisow review of

Justice, Texas Style -- Read About It While You Can

Mon Jul 28, 2008 at 04:57:59 PM [ It begins ]

Authorities in Smith County (Tyler) might not be happy to learn that Smith County Justice, a book alleging systemic corruption and unusually harsh sentences in the county that virtually disappeared after its 1985 publication, is now available online. For free.

Since the book appeared on Wikileaks earlier this year, it's gained quite a following. (For those who want the original hardcover, four used copies are available on Amazon – starting at $595.)"

READ MORE AT

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/2008/07/justice_texas_style_read_about.php

Southwest Journal of Cultures

The Southwest Journal of Cultures is about to launch!

http://southwestjournalofcultures.blogspot.com/2008/07/we-will-post-reviews-of-latest.html

"The SJC covers all significant happenings in the study of folk culture, high culture, and popular culture of the American Southwest, past and present. Looking outward, the journal is concerned with a southwestern perspective on national and international culture and culture studies.
We will post reviews of the latest scholarly texts dealing with southwestern art, literature, music, theatre, podcasts, weblogs, and more. Post your responses to our reviews and participate in the on-going discussion of what's new in the Southwest and the nation.
The SJC is a peer-reviewed venue."

Launched as a centennial project of Northeastern State University in Oklahoma.  The Journal's chair of advisors is "Peter C. Rollins, Regents Professor Emeritus, Oklahoma State University, and former editor-in-chief of Film & History: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Film and Television Studies. For over a decade, he was the Associate Editor of the Journal of Popular Culture and the Journal of American Culture."

Blood and Thunder - Mark Finn

The Rabble Rouser's Forum posts a Paul Pappan review of the biography of Texas Robert E. Howard, creator of Conan the Barbarian, etc., putting Howard in the Tall Tales Tradition.  The review begins

"Blood and Thunder: The Life and Art of Robert E. Howard

by Mark Finn  -  MonkeyBrain Books | 2006

THIS BOOK EXPLORES the life and times of one of the most famous writers ever to come out of the state of Texas. During his brief writing career in the 1920s and 1930s, Robert E. Howard did a lot more for imaginative literature than simply create the character of Conan the Cimmerian.

In the early 1900s, Texas was experiencing an oil boom. Practically overnight, a town would spring up around oil wells, bringing all sorts of people, from roughnecks to work the wells,to barkeepers to prostitutes. They would stay until the oil ran out, then move on to the next boom town."   READ MORE AT

 

http://rabblerouserforumart.blogspot.com/2008/07/book-reviews_28.html

Texana Going to the Dogs

Book Featuring Rescued Texas Dog Published

 

July 5, 2008 :  Proceeds will help to fund various animal welfare organizations.
[Newsrelease begins]
"Dingo has traded his status from a lonely stray adopted from the Galveston Island Humane Society to a beloved family member, featured as the lead character in his own children's book, Where Do Dingos Come From. The Labrador/chow mix now has a fictional counterpart, who helps to teach children about adopting pets and kindness and compassion to animals.

Tracy and Bascom Bradshaw, authors of the book and Dingo's guardians, note, "This book is the first in a series that introduces our characters and how Dingo the dog meets Cricket and their pet-loving Mom, Sophie. Our books are really a medium for us to provide a face to our Dingo the Dog Project which funds trap-spay-neuter [TNR] programs in our Doha, Qatar neighborhood and donations to shelters, as well as the lesson plans we are developing for teaching children about responsible pet care and pet adoption.""
READ MORE ABOUT http://network.bestfriends.org/texas/news/26875.html

Apples and Oranges - Marie Brenner

Book Reviews: 'Apples and Oranges' and 'The Film Club'

Apples and Oranges My Brother and Me, Lost and Found By Marie Brenner 268 pages. $24. Sarah Crichton Books/Farrar, Straus Giroux.

 

EXTRACT: ""Is anything in life an accident?" Marie asks. They both came from the same secular Jewish household, heirs to a chain of Texas discount stores called Solo Serve. So how could she become a liberal journalist in New York while her brother turned out to be a Bush-loving, Wagner-listening, evangelical "right-wing nut" growing apples on the other  coast?"

 

READ MORE ABOUT IT in the International Herald Tribune

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/07/arts/booklun.php

Priest, a Prostitute, and Some Other Early Texans - Don Blevins

Edward Sumerau in Augusta, Georgia's METRO SPIRIT reviews a volume. It begins

"AUGUSTA, GA - In a well-crafted narrative, Don Blevins offers a view of the determination and diversity found in the historical roots of Texas in his "A Priest, a Prostitute, and Some Other Early Texans." Tracing the lives of fourteen individuals, Blevins breathes life into the mists of time by displaying the intricate details found in the various lives of the early residents of the state. 

A member of the Texas Historical Association and the Writers League of Texas, Don Blevins is a powerful voice in the field of historical research. With a master's degree in Southwestern Studies from Texas State University, he is the author of "Peculiar, Uncertain, and Two Egg:  From Angels to Hellcats" and "Texas Towns: From Abner to Zipperlandville." Living in San Marcos, Texas, he has published a number of works in various magazines, and has gained a reputation for spirited narratives built upon impeccable research."

READ MORE

 

Memoir: One Ranger - Joaquin Jackson

Texana Review podcasts captures a two-part interview with Joaquin Jackson, now a retired Texas Ranger, regarding his life and book.  Ed Blackburn sets up the reader to become a listener with

"Joaquin Jackson was 21 years old when he joined the Texas Department of Public Safety.  He had to wait nine years before he could apply to become a Texas Ranger. He waited, biding his time, and became one in 1966, and rangered for the next 27 years.

In 1994 he became famous when his picture appeared on the cover of Texas Monthly in a photograph taken by Dan Winters.

Today he's retired.  He's written a book, "One Ranger: A Memoir," that was published last year and has been selling extremely well.  He's looking forward to movie based on that book.  He's also written another book. "One Ranger Returns," to be published next year.

Recently, he and I chatted with one another about these things and more.  The chat provided some very interesting insights into a man who was a Texas Ranger.

We talked for over 40 minutes …too long to ask you listen to it in one sitting. So, I've split the interview into two parts.

In this first part, Part A, we chat about his book, "One Ranger: A Memoir;" his second book, "One Ranger Returns," and the movie that Hollywood's about to make on the first book.

In the second Part B, we talk about more personal things – his youth, how he came to law enforcement, his weapons, why it's important to say what you mean, and his thoughts on the modern Texas Ranger force.

Listen while Ranger Jackson and I chat …"

 

http://texanareview.typepad.com/posts/2007/03/index.html

Larry Thomas - Readings

Ed Blackburn's Texana Review has two podcast sessions of Texas Poet Laureate Larry Thomas readng his poetry.  Listen to those here

http://texanareview.typepad.com/posts/2006/09/larry_thomas_re.html

http://texanareview.typepad.com/posts/2006/09/larry_thomas_re_1.html

Larry Thomas - Inteview

Texana Review offers this:

Interview: Larry Thomas, Texas Poet

(Podcast)
It was November 2005.  Houston, Texas.  It was dusk.  I was looking for an old, cheap window casement. 

I walked through a narrow and rickety old door into the Texas Junk Company and almost knocked over an equally rickety six-foot shelf full of weird colored cowboy boots in a cluttered aisle.  I spun around, suddenly lost.  The place was stuffed to the ceiling with ... stuff!  I couldn't find the door I just entered through, so I scuttled down another cluttered aisle and stumbled into a big, bearded guy wearing the Texas state flag for a shirt.

He smiled a big, broad, friendly smile and held up his new book that had just been published, for me to see.  It was titled "Stark Beauty" and it was a book of poetry ... Texas poetry.  It was his fifth book.  His name was then (and still is), Larry Thomas.  He's a poet ... a Texas poet ... and a good Texas poet.

I told him he was perfect candidate for an interview for The Texana Review.  He believed me and agreed to chat about his work ...."

LISTEN HERE TO THE PODCAST http://texanareview.typepad.com/posts/2006/08/index.html

Will Howard 12618 Ashcroft, Houston Tx 77035 Cell:832-633-0595 Home:713-728-1981
Publisher, Wills Texana Monthly, subscribe at willstexana@yahoo.com
Host, Texas Parlor, a blog at http://texasparlor.blogspot.com/
Host, Texas Bookshelf, a blog at http://texasbookshelf.blogspot.com/
Host, Young Texas Reader, a blog at http://youngtexasreader.blogspot.com/
Who is Will Howard? http://texasparlor.blogspot.com/2006/07/who-is-will-howard-texas-bibliographer.html

Wanted - Ed Blackburn

FROM:  TEXANA REVIEW

Book Review: "Wanted-Historic Jails of Texas"

{A brief narative sets up the reader to listen to the podcast}

(Podcast)
As the Texas frontier became more populous, settlements and towns began to spring up. For the most part, the frontiersmen and women were law-abiding people who were intent on making a new life for themselves in a new but often inhospitable land.

But, as it has always been, some bad guys came, too.

There were robbers, thieves, scam artists, drunks, cattle rustlers, gunfighters and a whole slew of other outlaws who followed civilization into the Texas west.

Before long, townspeople began to realize the need for enforcing the law, and that they had to have a place to lock up the law-breakers. So, as you might imagine, the jailhouse was probably one of the first structures built in a new community. "

LISTEN HERE http://texanareview.typepad.com/posts/2006/07/index.html

Will Howard 12618 Ashcroft, Houston Tx 77035 Cell:832-633-0595 Home:713-728-1981
Publisher, Wills Texana Monthly, subscribe at willstexana@yahoo.com
Host, Texas Parlor, a blog at http://texasparlor.blogspot.com/
Host, Texas Bookshelf, a blog at http://texasbookshelf.blogspot.com/
Host, Young Texas Reader, a blog at http://youngtexasreader.blogspot.com/
Who is Will Howard? http://texasparlor.blogspot.com/2006/07/who-is-will-howard-texas-bibliographer.html

Texas History Movies comic book

 Here's a review of Texas History Movies from the perspective of a Scoop reader, http://scoop.diamondgalleries.com/public/.  (By the way the book of acquied by the Texas State Historical Association, not the Texas Historical Society).

IT BEGINS 

"Comics in the classroom… in the Platinum Age?

A 1970s hardcover reprint collection of Texas History Movies, a Platinum Age comic strip and school text book

"The Eyes of Texas are upon you..." echoes the old refrain, and for collector Weldon Adams it seems particularly true. Though he started collecting in the '70s and places a high value on many of today's titles, in recent years he's found himself inexorably drawn to a little-documented series from the Platinum Age.

His enthusiasm for a collection of newspaper strips dating from 1926 was nothing he planned, though.

"I'm as surprised as anyone else that this is where I've ended up for the moment," said Adams, who counts JSA, Teen Titans and Noble Causes among his current favorites. "But this stuff is too cool!"

"My interest in the history of the industry started very early on," he said. "When I first discovered that there was an entire generation of superheroes that predated the ones that I knew about, well, I just had to know what that was all about! Those early JLA/JSA crossovers just set me on fire! And since there were no comic shops available to me in the early 70's, I had to hit the libraries and look for reference books on the industry. So I learned about the old characters and the people who created them at the same time. It seemed like every decade has it's own thing that made it fascinating to read about. The late '30s saw the creation of the true 'Superhero.' The '40s sent that hero to war. The '50s had a poor man's version of the McCarthy hearings that lead to the creation of a self-imposed regulating committee. The '60s saw both the rebirth of the superhero and his attempt to be relevant to the modern world. It was all fascinating to me. My interest in the history of the medium eventually lead me to an unusual find. At a yard sale, I found a small digest size paperback book that was a 1927 collection of newspaper strips. It was called Texas History Movies. My curiosity lead me to start research on this book that I am currently still working on.""

READ MORE HERE 

Marcia Gruver Interview

The blogger Elizabeth Ludwig in Novel Journey interviews southeast Texas Christian writer Marcia Gruver about her novels, including the October title Diamond Duo in her Texas series.  The interview begins

"Marcia Gruver is a full time writer who hails from Southeast Texas. Inordinately enamored by the past, Marcia delights in writing historical fiction. Her deep south-central roots lend a Southern-comfortable style and a touch of humor to her writing. /  Marcia won third place in the 2007 ACFW Genesis contest and third in the 2004 ACFW Noble Theme contest. ..." READ MORE AT

http://noveljourney.blogspot.com/2008/07/author-interview-marcia-gruver.html

Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy - Robert Leleux

The Last Noel points us toward a volume discovered in a Different Light Bookstore.

 

Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy by Robert Leleux.

 

http://thelastnoel.blogspot.com/search?q=texas

and reviews it at

http://www.inlamagazine.com/1025/features/1025_mem.html

It's a story about a boy, abandoned by his father, but who adores his mother.

Texian Macabre - Stephen Hardin

Dick Stanley's quick review of a book about early Houston, Texas

http://texasscribbler.com/blog/2008/07/texian_macabre.html

Great Air Ship Mystery - Wallace Chariton - Interview

http://aliencasebook.blogspot.com/ begins its reports of this 1897 historical mystery

 

"Once you're done viewing the video, click on the other video that looks like this picture and you'll view an 11 minute, off-the-cuff interview with Wallace Chariton.

Wallace Chariton spends a lot of time in libraries and halls of records. Chariton is a well-published Texas historian. He's scoured the records of a century ago and has written a book on one of the strangest chapters in the state's past called, 'The Great Texas Airship Mystery'."

READ MORE HERE FROM THE ALIEN CASEBOOK FRONTIER

 

Joe Nick Patokski Interview in Yelp Blog

Willie Nelson bio author Joe Nick Patoski: Interview by Kevin Newsum

http://blog.yelp.com/2008/07/willie-nelson-b.html

Patience in Courage - Beth Fehlbaum

East Texas Author Pens Novel Speaking Out Against Abuse

By LAUREN KEATON Staff Writer Tyler Morning Telegraph

Thousands of children are sexually abused in America every year.

The National Resource Council estimates the percent of the U.S. population which has been sexually abused to ranges from 54-62 percent.

Beth Fehlbaum was one of them.

"Almost four years ago, I went into recovery for sexual abuse," she said.

Ms. Fehlbaum is a teacher in Athens Independent School District and author of a debut novel "Courage in Patience."

Although she said she was abused in her adolescence, she has only been dealing with the pain for a short time.

"I just pushed it back," she said. "I tried to deal with it in my early 20s. I weighed 100 pounds more than I do now. I was trying to hide behind my weight. I just stuffed myself and constantly had a feeling of anxiety and didn't know why. I just went from one thing to another."
READ MORE from the Tyler Morning Telegram's Tylerpaper.com

http://www.tylerpaper.com/article/20080721/NEWS01/807210301/-1/RSS01

Her blog at http://courageinpatience.blogspot.com/

Publisher http://www.kunati.com/courage-in-patience

Should be considered for Young Adult Reading, main character is 14-years-old

American Windmills - Lindsay Baker

Author turns collection of windmill photos into book.

By Mike Cox for the Austin American Statesmnan
Sunday, July 20, 2008

REVIEW BEGINS:  "If you don't live in West Texas or remember it from "back when," you probably don't really comprehend what's happening in that part of the state, where traffic jams are rare and wide open space plentiful.

In a word, it's windmills. Well, more accurately, two words: wind turbines.

Like sunflowers in a wet year, wind turbines by the hundreds are popping up on mesa tops from Sweetwater to the Midland-Odessa area to the Panhandle. Nolan County alone will have 1,500 turbines rotating by the end of the year, enough to power a large city." 

READ MORE OF THE REVIEW HERE

 

Texas Ransom - Amanda Stevens

Texas Ransom

Texas Ransom

Author: Amanda Stevens
Copyright: 2008 (Harlequin); pgs. 242
Series: Silhouette Intrigue #1035; Intrigue's Ultimate Heroes
Sensuality: Subtle

Who: Graham Hollister and Kendall Hollister

Summary: "Wealth, power and the perfect life. That's what Graham Hollister thought he had with his beautiful wife, Kendall. He'd almost lost her in a deadly car crash, but since then he'd reveled in their renewed marriage.... " 

READ REVIEW http://misscz.wordpress.com/2008/07/18/texas-ransom/

Bond of Blood - Diane Whiteside

BOND OF BLOOD: A Novel of Texas Vampires. By Diane Whiteside. New York: Berkley / Penguin, 2007. 343 pages, pbk, $7.99 ISBN 9780425217979   http://www.penguin.com

 

Here's your modern and scientifically based Texas vampire novel set in modern times. 

It's blood sucking, violent, erotic with fleshy scenes, laced with Spanish and French language, and flash-backs for background.   Don Rafael crossed over 700 years ago in ancient Spain, now he drives a Mercedes in Texas as maybe the most powerful bloodsucker in America - until evil vampires show up.  New Orleans' Madame Celeste has ordered Beau, "You must go to Texas and destroy Don Rafael for me," and the contest is on.  Into this bi-temporal plot is mixed the current, torrid love affair with Grania.  Whiteside brings Texas vampire genre to a new height of complexity.

For a list of 50 other Texas vampire novels, request the list from Will's Texana.

 

Color of Blood - Les Coalson

The Wall Street Journal's Market Watch carries a review

"Suspense Novel 'Color of Blood' Captures Environmental and Moral Issues"

Texas Author's Second Novel Sure to Please

July 16, 2008 [ It begins:

"WACO, Texas, July 16, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Eakin Press announces the release of Texas author Les Coalson's second fast-paced novel, "Color of Blood." A sequel to Coalson's first book "Sever the Darkness," the main storyline focuses on the mysterious disappearance of a young couple as it takes readers through Southeast and Central Texas.

Journalist Clay Aker teams with up with Texas Ranger Julio Ramirez in search of Clay's brother, Jack, an environmental activist who disappeared from the Texas Gulf Coast with his girlfriend, Vicky, while sampling for mercury poisoning. Was their disappearance an accident? Clay is determined to discover what happened to his brother as murder, theft, kidnapping and environmental pollution complicate the search."

 

READ MORE HERE

Galveston Pirate and Cowboy Comic

Pirates + Cowboys = "Galveston"

• by Shaun Manning, Staff Writer
• Email Author
• (More from this Author)

Mon, July 14th, 2008 at 4:25PM PST

Updated: Mon, July 14th, 2008 at 4:27PM PST

 

"Galveston" #1 on sale in September

"Pirates meet cowboys this September in "Galveston," a four-issue miniseries from BOOM! Studios written by Tom Peyer and Mark Rahner with art by Greg Scott. Based on history and enhanced by fertile imagination, the book depicts pirates and cowboys as the nasty, rough breeds of people you'd always hoped they could be. CBR News caught up with writers Peyer and Rahner to discuss the book, and the new age of unserious comics."

 

READ more of Shaun's article

in the CBR News

at the comicbookresources.com blog

Bill Crider Interveiw

Interview of mystery writer Bill Crider by Bill Hockensmith

http://writerinterviews.blogspot.com/2008/03/bill-crider.html

Texans Always Move Them - Jeffrey Murrah

The Sons of the Republic of Texas offer a "Press Release-For Immediate Release"

 

"The Sons of the Republic of Texas awarded author Jeffrey Murrah the 2007 Presidio La Bahia award for his recent book, Texans Always Move Them: A True History of Texas, as the best book on the early history of Texas. The award was given out at the Presidio La Bahia in the 40th annual ceremony marking the Goliad Declaration of Independence. The ceremony was attended by the Bishop of the diocese of Victoria, the Knights of San Jacinto and hosted by the Sons of the Republic of Texas.

Texans Always Move Them: A True History of Texas was the first general history to ever win the award. If you have ever wondered about the exploits of the Texas Navy, the international drama surrounding the annexation of Texas, or how Texans shaped the world, this book is for you. Texas musicians, artists, lawyers, politicians, missionaries and outlaws are all included in this highly readable, colorful history.

The author decided to call it a 'true history' when at a book signing in Rosenburg, Texas, a patron asked if his previous award winning book, None But Texians: A History of Terry's Texas Rangers was a 'true' history. He realized then that Texans and Texas lovers wanted a factual history of Texas filled with the drama, riots, wars and intrigue that are a part of its history instead of historical novels. Jeff spent five years researching the material for the book, as part of a homeschooling project. The volume covers events from pre-history through 2005. Ordering information is available at www.NoneButTexians.com

Jeff graduated from Sam Rayburn High School in Pasadena, Texas. He also attended San Jacinto College and the University of Houston at Clear Lake City, where he received his BS and MA degrees. He later also taught at San Jacinto College as an adjunct professor.:

Historic Hotels of Texas - Liz Camack

Day Trips BY GERALD E. MCLEOD in the Austin Chronicle

Book reviews of: Historic Hotels of Texas, A Traveler's Guide, by Liz Carmack. Texas A&M University Press, 253 pp. $23

"Historic Hotels of Texas is as much a history book as it is a traveler's guide. You would be hard-pressed to find a hotel of historical significance missing from Liz Carmack's collection of the luxurious to threadbare lodgings around the state.

Here's a book that dares to include the Lancaster Hotel in Houston and Turkey, Texas' Hotel Turkey in the same list." ....

 

Read More Here

 

See also http://www.lizcarmack.com

Swan Peak - James Lee Burke

Not Texana but by Houstonian who occasionally recalls Texas in volumes.  Review from the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

 

James Lee Burke's Detective Dave Robicheaux heads to the wilds of Montana in his 17th novel featuring the Cajun cop

Posted by Susan Larson, Book editor, The Times-Picayune July 09, 2008 5:00AM

SWAN PEAK: A DAVE ROBICHEAUX NOVEL
By James Lee Burke (Simon & Schuster, 25.95)

In "Swan Peak," his latest novel featuring Cajun detective Dave Robicheaux, James Lee Burke heads for the mountains of Montana, looking for that fresh start, that respite of the spirit, always promised by the open landscapes of the American West. As usual, what he finds are heaps of trouble created by dark characters who are driven by their own violent histories, dragging their twisted ambitions along with them.

David Grunfeld / The Times-PicayuneJames Lee Burke, a Houston native, comes from an old Louisiana family that has bragging rights to a grand literary heritage. Members of the Burke and Dubus clan will publish five novels this year.

Dave and his wife Molly and their friend Clete Purcel have gone in search of relief from the troubles of the Gulf Coast; all are haunted by the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which Burke so beautifully rendered in 2007's "The Tin Roof Blowdown."

Clete, in particular, mourns his lost New Orleans with eloquent grace. They are staying with their friend, Albert Hollister, an English professor and writer who appeared in "A Season of Regret" in Burke's 2007 collection, "Jesus Out to Sea," and he has a weakness for the woebegone himself, which he comes by honestly after doing his own stretch of hard time. Albert's life, like Dave's, is a redemption-in-progress.  "

 

READ MORE HERE

Why I Came West - Rick Bass

Books: The call of the West

REVIEW By Susan Salter Reynolds IN The Los Angeles Times

    "Why I Came West: A Memoir" by Rick Bass| (Houghton Mifflin, $24, 238 pps.)
   
    "Rick Bass is one of this country's greatest and most reluctant activists. He grew up in Texas, worked for eight years in Mississippi as an oil and gas geologist and moved, 21 years ago, to the Yaak Valley in northwestern Montana. He started writing fiction, but it didn't take long for the landscape and a certain "chemistry of spirit," he writes, to turn him into an environmental activist. Bass was shaped, he freely admits, by the land.
    "Why I Came West" is the story of that process. It proceeds as a series of questions the author asks himself: How did I get here? How is it possible to be a hunter, an oil geologist and an environmentalist? How did I become an advocate for wilderness? How can I avoid burnout? How can I, as an American no matter how well-intentioned, avoid being a hypocrite? When can I go back to being a fiction writer? When can I stop fighting and just walk back into the woods?"

READ MORE HERE

Books - McMurtry

Books: A Memoir

Larry McMurtry's life and times as a bookseller.

By Elizabeth Brown July 7, 2008 edition

Books: A Memoir By Larry McMurtry Simon & Schuster 272 pp. $24

---

"The moral among antiquarian booksellers, according to Larry McMurtry's new Books: A Memoir, is that you can't know everything. Pricing errors are bound to happen, like the day McMurtry bought a book for $250, sold it the next day for $750, and then watched it sell a few months later for $8,000. The book turned out to be a rare, censored edition that had passed through the libraries of two important collectors – a Russian prince and a "creepy Parisian" – and contained the unusual photographic bookplate of the latter.
Such tales fill McMurtry's 50 years as a book dealer. He's handled hundreds of thousands of books yet recalls even the tiniest details.
After growing up in a "bookless" house in Texas, McMurtry began writing, then buying and selling books. The book trade has long been his central passion and his own library now contains 28,000 volumes of books he's still reading."

READ MORE FROM THE MONITOR

Little Big Bend - Roy Morey

Book Review: Little Big Bend:

Common, Uncommon, and Rare Plants

of Big Bend National Park by Roy Morey

http://www.bloggernews.net/116577

Rare Plants of Texas - Poole

Book Review: Rare Plants of Texas by Poole, Carr, Price and Singhurst
at http://www.bloggernews.net/116573

Calico Canyon - Mary Conneally

For the Romantic at heart

Another Lassoed in Texas book by Mary Connealy: Calico Canyon

review at http://cballan.wordpress.com/2008/07/10/1003/

First Anglo Cookbook - Gordon Petty

The First Anglo Cookbook of Old East Texas
By Gordon Petty

Should provide much for the culinary historians to chew over.

Review by Carolyn Ericson
Read the review in Lufkin Daily News

Dromgoole Reviews

This week Glenn Dromgoole reviews these items in the Abilene Reporter News:
Frankly Speaking of Texas by Charles Chupp
A Few Good Horses by Pierce Burns
The Fight Is On in Texas: A History of African-American Churches of Christ in the Lone Star State, 1865-2000 Edward J. Robinson
Read more of the Abilene Reporter News

Si Dunn's Review in DMN

Si Dunn writes a regular Dallas Morning News column
of brief book reviews "Texas and Southwest books."
This Sunday he covers

Mavericks by Gene Fowler

The Comanche Empire by Pekka Hamalainen

The Mexican Massacre of 400 Texas Volunteers by Jay A. Stout

and

Twilight of the Texas Democrats: The 1978 Governor's Race by Kenneth Bridges

Read more at

http://www.guidelive.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/books/stories/DN-tswbooks_0629gl.ART.State.Bulldog.4e2d8db.html

Book: A Memoir - Larry McMurtry

Clay Reynolds, Paul Wilner, and Ed Nawotka reviews

'Books: A Memoir' by Larry McMurtry: Texas author reveals lifelong love affair with reading

Sunday, July 6, 2008

By CLAY REYNOLDS / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News
books@dallasnews.com Novelist Clay Reynolds is Professor of Arts & Humanities at the University of Texas at Dallas. His latest work of fiction is Sandhill County Lines.

[The review begins]

"There are, one may infer from Larry McMurtry's 38th solo volume, four kinds of people who love second-hand bookshops: readers, collectors, dealers and scouts. Writers, which he certainly is, do not always subscribe, for they often see a used-book store as a kind of mortuary, a place where careers often go, too soon, to be buried.

He fits the other categories, though, for he is first and foremost a bookman, and he implies that his writing has merely been a handy enabler of that more profound love.

This newest peek into the life of a Texas favorite son author is no less intriguing or less frustrating than have been previous autobiographies."

Read more at http://www.guidelive.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/books/stories/DN-bk_mcmurtry_0706gl.ART.State.Bulldog.4d51a33.html

or read the LA Times, same topic

By Paul Wilner July 6, 2008
BooksA MemoirLarry McMurtrySimon & Schuster: 260 pp., $24"The older the violin, the sweeter the music," Gus McCrae remarks in "Lonesome Dove," Larry McMurtry's magisterial western about a cattle drive from Texas to Montana and the havoc wreaked in its path. The silver-tongued devil's observation is about affairs of the heart, of course, but it could well serve as a description of the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer's career.In his latest work, "Books: A Memoir," McMurtry, 72, takes an elegiac look back at his life as a buyer, seller and lover of the written word -- he boasts that Booked Up, the fabled store he opened in his hometown of Archer City, Texas, a few years back, has 28,000 secondhand volumes of the product we currently hear may soon be eclipsed by Kindle."

Read more from the LA Times

or read the Austin American Statesman review

Larry McMurtry's 'Books': rambling, disorganized, dull
The 'Lonesome Dove' author leads us through a disappointing tour of his life as a bookseller
By Edward Nawotka

July 06, 2008

[Ed begins]
"In his new memoir "Books" — an account of his more than 50-year career as a "bookman" — Larry McMurtry states that "the antiquarian book trade is an anecdotal culture." To wit, I start thusly: In my 20s, I spent a summer working for an antiquarian book-seller. It was a prestigious place, just off Boston's posh Newbury Street, run by a married pair of blue-blood WASPs who hired their interns from Harvard and — in those pre-Internet times — researched the provenance of any book they didn't have immediate knowledge of by going down to the Boston Athenaeum, a members-only library dating back to 1807. "

Read more

Texas Historical and Literary Blogs Project

We're compiling a list of "Texas Historical and Literary Blogs," because there appears to be no such bibliography now.  To date we have about 60, adding one or two each week or so.  I'm guessing the total may be about 75.  Searching methodology has been diverse.  The picking has been odd at times and refreshing at times. 

The list has gotten long enough to be more convenient by category so the categories at present are

 

Wills General History, Literature, and Reference

Agents, Editors, Publicists, Consultants, etc.

Architectural Preservation

Classroom Experiments

Commercial Expressions

Culturally Merging / Verging on Historical or Literary Historical Interests

Literary Interests & Writers

Reading Clubs

Adapted Format

 

The final work will be released in August as a monothematic issue of Will's Texana Monthly.  The final work will invclude some annotation for each and possibly a graphic from each blog if the imagery does not add too much to the file size.

 

Do please feel free to suggest blogs.

 

 

 

I Have Been Diagnosed - GlennDromgoole

"Abilene author and book columnist Glenn Dromgoole has published his 20th book, "I Have Been Diagnosed with a Fatal Disease and other poems."

 

"The poems, written during the past three years, cover a variety of topics and moods, ranging from light-hearted commentary on men, food, socks and weather to serious pieces about life and death, especially the sudden death of his 31-year-old daughter Janet in 2005.

Dromgoole, editor of the Abilene Reporter-News from 1986-1997, writes a column on Texas books and authors for nine newspapers and magazines. He chairs the West Texas Book and Music Festival and he and his wife Carol own Texas Star Trading Company, 174 Cypress St. downtown, where autographed copies of his books are available."

Read more

http://www.reporternews.com/news/2008/jul/02/abilene-author-publishes-his-20th-book/

The Bottoms - Joe Lansdale

One Minute Reviews identifies Lansdale's The Bottoms as 1 of 5 novels

 

The Five Essential Crime Novels Published Since 2000 Are …

She describes it as

"The Bottoms (2000) by Joe R. Lansdale. "Joe Lansdale is best known for his series of violently farcical novels in which Hap Collins, white and straight, and Leonard Pine, black and gay, join forces in an odd crime team let loose among the rednecks in the Deep South, but The Bottoms is something very different," Shephard and Rennison write. The novel, set east Texas in the mid-1930s, involves the discovery of a mutilated body bound to a tree in the river bottoms near the home of its young narrator, Harry Crane."

 

Read more http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2008/07/03/the-five-essential-crime-novels-published-since-2000-are-%e2%80%a6/

Will Howard 12618 Ashcroft, Houston Tx 77035 Cell:832-633-0595 Home:713-728-1981
Publisher, Wills Texana Monthly, subscribe at willstexana@yahoo.com
Host, Texas Parlor, a blog at http://texasparlor.blogspot.com/
Host, Texas Bookshelf, a blog at http://texasbookshelf.blogspot.com/
Who is Will Howard? http://texasparlor.blogspot.com/2006/07/who-is-will-howard-texas-bibliographer.html

Bond of Blood - Diane Whiteside

BOND OF BLOOD: A Novel of Texas Vampires. By Diane Whiteside. New York: Berkley / Penguin, 2007. 343 pages, pbk, $7.99 ISBN 9780425217979   http://www.penguin.com

 

Here's your modern and scientifically based Texas vampire novel set in modern times.  It's blood sucking, violent, erotic with fleshy scenes, laced with Spanish and French language, and flash-backs for background.   Don Rafael crossed over 700 years ago in ancient Spain, now he drives a Mercedes in Texas as maybe the most powerful bloodsucker in America - until evil vampires show up.  New Orleans' Madame Celeste has ordered Beau, "You must go to Texas and destroy Don Rafael for me," and the contest is on.  Into this bi-temporal plot is mixed the current, torrid love affair with Grania.  Whiteside brings Texas vampire genre to a new height of complexity.

For a list of 50 other Texas vampire novels, request the list from Will's Texana. 

Elvis Takes a Back Seat - Leanna Ellis

 Elvis Takes a Back Seat.  By Leanna Ellis (aka Leanna Wilson).  Nashville: B&H Pub. Group, 2008. 314 pages, pbk, $14.99. http://www.bhpublishinggroup.com/  

Ellis' work is a Christian woman's fictional adventure.  The back cover blurb plainly states, "Leanna Ellis has sold more than one million books …."  The setting is around Dallas.  Claudia's husband makes a last request and dies.  Elvis didn't really ride with Claudia, but a three-foot bust does.  She and her friends stow Elvis in the Cadillac's back seat and are off for a road trip to Memphis.  They discover pieces of themselves and others along the way, while quoting scripture from the Good Book, Southern Living, and Graceland lyrics.  Their tears and laughter keep readers moving.  They get back and have a garage sale, and Claudia thanks God for answering "the cry of my heart," before she'd even prayed for it.

Texas Curiosities - John Kelso

 Texas Curiosities:  Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities & Other Offbeat Stuff, 3^rd ed.  By John Kelson.  Guilford, Conn.:  Insiders Guide / Globe Pequot Press, 2007.  pbk  ISBN 0-7627-4109-0  $13.95   http://www.globepequot.com

 

The Austin Statesman humor columnist, John Kelso is an oddball specialist and he holds forth on odd-to-pleasant special things across the state's eight regions.  Learn about Dallas' Cow Goddess, Beaumont's Big Bopper, Eldorado's polygamy, Groom's 2^nd tallest cross in the Western Hemisphere, and Houston's Funeral Museum.  Ponder the connections in Kelsoland.  As a gesture to normalcy, Kelso adds sidebars of history to the 200 important things.

Will Howard 12618 Ashcroft, Houston Tx 77035 Cell:832-633-0595 Home:713-728-1981
Publisher, Wills Texana Monthly, subscribe at willstexana@yahoo.com
Host, Texas Parlor, a blog at http://texasparlor.blogspot.com/
Host, Texas Bookshelf, a blog at http://texasbookshelf.blogspot.com/
Who is Will Howard? http://texasparlor.blogspot.com/2006/07/who-is-will-howard-texas-bibliographer.html

Telephone Road - Burton Chapman

Telephone Road, Texas:  A History and Guide to Telephone Road and Southeast Houston.  By Burton Chapman.   Friendswood:  Baxter Press, 2007.  Paperback, 157 pages, many black and white photos.  $15.95  ISBN 978-1-888237-78-8  http://www.telephoneroadtexas.com

 Chapman's born and educated in Houston, but he's drifted south to Pearland which is at the south end of Telephone Road.

For those unaware of the world's major travelways, Telephone Road roughly parallels Houston's Gulf Freeway for a few miles both north and south of the 610 South Loop.  Folks living there go way back, even to the sparse ranching days of the 1800's.

Chapman's chapters suggest some of the major widely-known landmarks:  Christy Brothers Circus, Hobby Airport, Gulfgate Mall, and the Manned Spacecraft Center.  Some now fading from memory (but less so with this book) are the Sam Allen Ranch, Galveston-Houston Interurban, Christy Brothers Circus, and the Golfcrest Country Club, etc. 

From these and other chapters, Chapman selects for is final 11^th chapter 20 "Interesting Places."  Yes, he's got the Orange Show, Tel-Wink Grill, the Typewriter and Adding Machine Exchange, the Ukranian Orthodox Monastery of the Four Evangelists, and a good eatery Loma Linda's Mexican Restaurant.

He does more than point and identify, he gives history.  For example, the Santa Rosa Theater once was THE place to go, really a classy, family place, and then it declined until its screen displayed flailing body parts in unclassy settings.  It fell to demolition.

But thanks to Chapman, Telehphone Road lives and remembers.