Review by Arnold Vintner on May 5, 2010 at 1:21 am in the Fort Liberty Blog |
 Vermont Public Radio carries NPR's "All Things Considered" gesture toward Laura Bush's biography. It begins "In her eight years at the White House, former first lady Laura Bush had a Mona Lisa quality to her. That smile -- was it one of peace, one of joy, or was it a mask? Perhaps all three. In her new memoir, Spoken from the Heart, Laura Bush writes about her life, from her early years -- her childhood in Midland, Texas, and the night she was at the wheel when a car accident left a classmate dead -- to her experiences in the White House during her husband's two terms. Bush begins the book with an early memory that reflects part of "a pervasive loss for my family." When she was 2 years old, her mother, Jenna Welch, gave birth to a baby boy who did not survive long enough to leave the Western Clinic in the family's hometown, deep in west Texas. He was not the only baby lost to the Welch family." Read more at |
The New York Times reports for your information two plays there, that may come to a stage near you. ENRON';This flashy but labored economics lesson, written by Lucy Prebble and directed by Rupert Goold, works overtime to make entertaining spectacle out of a certain Texas energy company's self-destruction. But the realization sets in early that this British-born exploration of smoke-and-mirrors finances isn't much more than smoke and mirrors itself (2:20). Broadhurst Theater, 235 West 44th Street , (212) 239-6200, telecharge.com. (Brantley)20100506 'THE ORPHANS' HOME CYCLE' On the basis of the three-work production that begins this New York premiere, Horton Foote's heart-piercing nine-play family album about growing up lonely in early-20th-century Texas should be the great adventure of the theater season. Directed with cinematic fluidity by Michael Wilson (2:50). Signature Theater at Peter Norton Space, 555 West 42nd Street, Clinton , (212) 244-7529, signaturetheatre.org. (Brantley)20100506 |
Cindy Bauer interviews Houston Christian author Deidre Kelly (Hall)  It begins: "Q: Tell us what makes you proud to be a writer from A: There are so many wonderful writers from
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Misterreereader revives our interest in Texas mystery writers with a posting of over 20 titles and 12 authors. The authors include Susan Wittig Albert; . – Jay Brandon – Bill Crider. – Ben Rehder – Chris Rogers – Barbara Burnett Smith – Karen MacInerney - Leann Sweeney – Rick Riordan - Cindy Daniel - DR Meredith- Livia J. Washburn . Check the full list with primary sleuths and settings at |
Mike Cox at the Lone Star Book blog has perked up and informs us of a new volume on neighborhood history in Austin. "From Abercrombie to the Violet Crown, A History-in-Progress: Brentwood and Crestview, Austin, Texas" by Susan Burneson. (Available from the author at nimbus@austin.rr.com, $20.) Mike titles his article and begins: " Book on Crestview brings back a lot of memories"My home life didn't quite stack up to "Leave It To Beaver" level in 1958, but all these decades later, it's easy to understand why so many of us who were there tend to look back at the 1950s as an idyllic time. You know. Safe streets. No TAKS tests or whatever they're called now. Homemade Halloween candy. Life in the suburbs, at least in Austin, Texas, USA was generally good. A year after Russia shocked the world by launching the first man-made satellite, I lived in the Crestview neighborhood in Austin. Just a block from our duplex was the Crestview Shopping Center that in one small area provided for most of our day-to-day needs. We could shop at a small grocery store (still in business all these years later), a drug store (yep, still here), a dry cleaners, and a hardware-variety store." Read more of Mike's essay:  This is Mike, still ranging after all these years! |
 JOE BAX, rancher, lawyer, authorA few months ago I was browsing a B&N bookstore and saw an interesting book. It was short so I picked it up and began reading its 168 pages. Finished it before I left the store. Reconstruction period Texas with the old man and his family patching things together until racial strife emerges. The story reveals a portion of Texas not often revealed - many in Texas besides the previous slaves really didn't like the degradation of the institution and the lingering virulence. The story is tight and moves well. It's good for the young reader as well as adults. Get a copy. Other reviews:  |
Kirkus Reviews ( http://www.kirkusreviews.com ) , established in 1933 was declared dead a few months ago until the Indiana Pacers' owner bought it and kept it alive. Their reviews appear early in the publishing stream and known for their saucy commentary. Kirkus is a mainstay for libraries and bookstores and the subscription is hefty. A search for "Texas" at the main page brings up a variety of titles (see below) with initial nubbets of the books' reviews; to see the full review, you'll need to subscribe. For example,
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Kirkus Reviews ( http://www.kirkusreviews.com ) , established in 1933 was declared dead a few months ago until the Indiana Pacers' owner bought it and kept it alive. Their reviews appear early in the publishing stream and known for their saucy commentary. Kirkus is a mainstay for libraries and bookstores and the subscription is hefty. A search for "Texas" at the main page brings up a variety of titles (see below) with initial nubbets of the books' reviews; to see the full review, you'll need to subscribe. For example,
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Lon Tinkle Award for excellence during a career, Larry L. King The Jesse H. Jones Award for Best Work of Fiction of 2009 to Scott Blackwood for We Agreed to Meet Just Here. Carr P. Collins Award for Best Book of Non-Fiction to Bryan Burrough for The Big Rich: The Rise and Fall of the Greatest Texas Oil Fortunes, Most Significant Scholarly Book Award to Emilio Zamora for Claiming Rights and Righting Wrongs: Mexican Workers and Job Politics during World War II.. Steven Turner Award for Best First Novel to John Pipkin for Woods Burner. Helen C. Smith Memorial Award for Best Book of Poetry to William Virgil Davis for Landscape and Journey. The Kay Cattarulla Award for Best Short Story to the late Marjorie Kemper, "Discovered America," in Southwest Review, Fall 2009. The O. Henry Award for Magazine Journalism to John Spong for "Holding Garmsir," in the Texas Monthly, issue January 2009. The Fred Whitehead Award for Best Design of a Trade Book to Lindsay Starr for I Do Not Apologize for the Length of This Letter: The Mari Sandoz Letters on Native American Rights, 1940-1965, The Austin Public Library Friends Foundation Award for Best Children's Book ($500) to Gwendolyn Zepeda for her Sunflowers/Girasoles. |
 The "Random Book Review" begins its review with:"So, I got the genre right this week. Honestly, though, I think I bit off a little more than I wanted to chew. Promised Lands is a novel written by Elizabeth Crook, and the darn thing took all week long to read because it's 509 pages in length. When I picked it out at the library, my husband gave me one of those wary looks and said, "You're not really going to read that, are you?" Oh, ye of little faith! Of course, I couldn't back down from the challenge in his tone, and needless to say, I made it through. And I'm glad, because it's actually a rather good read. Promised Lands is a Western/Historical novel about the Texas Rebellion which started in 1835 and lasted until the spring of 1836. It was published in 1994 by Doubleday, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. This novel has since been reissued by SMU Press as part of the Southwest Life and Letters series. Elizabeth Crook is the author of two other Western/Historical novels, one published before Promised Lands, and one published since, entitled The Night Journal, which won the 2007 Spur Award. She is a member of the Western Writers of America and The Texas Philosophical Society." Read more about it: http://therandombookreview.blogspot.com/2010/04/book-15-promised-lands.html |
 Cindy Hughes , Executive Director of the Writers League of Texas and founding director of the Texas Book Festival, provides an interesting list of Texas authors from the previous two decades in the "Dog Canyon." She calls it "Lone Star Lit 101." Includes literature, history, a wide variety of literary forms: Bestsellers, Prize winners, Westerns, Children's books, Poets, Journalists, Texas Monthly, Dang Good Books, Mysteries, Inspirational, Grand Dames, Romances, Science Fiction, and Historians. About 70 authors in all.She says "Unlike so-called Southern literature, which tends to focus on family, the history of the south, and even race and Gothic mystique, Texas lit doesn't have a distinctive Texas voice or typical subject matter. That is quite okay with me. Why should Texas writers echo one another and all be forced to write about Texas? I would argue that the fact that Texas writers crank out such an amazing variety of books makes our literary scene the most vibrant in the whole United States. Take that, Big Apple!" Folks at the Parlor and Bookshelf suggest that the lack of a distinctive voice simply marks Texas as a large and diverse community where the wide open spaces also reflect the wide open minds of Texans. Read more about it: http://www.dogcanyon.org/2009/09/10/lone-star-lit-101/ |
Teri Thacker, a romance writer herself, writes for the Examiner - book reviews of Houston area romance novelists whose settings often, but not always, are in Texas and Houston. See more revealed at http://www.examiner.com/x-3098-Houston-Romance-Novels-ExaminerRobert Flynn's Echoes of Glory (published by Texas Christian University Press) won for Best Western Long Novel
Nonfiction-Biography: David C. Humphrey, Peg Leg (Texas State Historical Association).
Nonfiction-Contemporary: Charles H. Harris III and Louis R. Sadler, The Secret War in El Paso: Mexican Revolutionary Intrigue, 1906-1920 (University of New Mexico Press).
Check the list for others at http://www.westernwriters.org/spur_award_history.htm where the lists go back to 1959.
The convention's in Knoxville in June.
Jim Cornelius at "The Cimmerian" writes about "T.R. Fehrenbach — Howardian historian." The essay makes clear the relationship between Robert E. Howard's (i.e., Conan the Barbarian, etc) historical sweep and that of Howard's Texas homeland. Folks at the Parlor would go so far as to say Conan was a Texan.Read more at http://www.thecimmerian.com/?p=12454
Carla in the "81 Press" revives interrest in Behold the People: R.C. Hickman's Photographs of Black Dallas 1949-1961"This remarkable book reproduces over one hundred photographs taken by R.C. Hickman, a professional photographer whose exceptional work provides a fascinating visual record of life in Dallas's black community during the three decades following World War II.
Born in Mineola, Texas, in 1922, Hickman moved with his family to Dallas, where his father worked at the Baker Hotel as a cook. While in the army during World War II, Hickman acquired his knowledge of photography by watching a fellow soldier develop official pictures of military combat. He learned quickly and soon became an official army photographer." Read more from Carla at
Darwin Payne sends this news relase from TIL http://www.texasinstituteofletters.org/TIL_2009_Finalists.pdf
Texas Institute of Letters Finalists
Named for 2009 Literary Awards
Finalists for the Texas Institute of letters awards for 2009 have been announced by William V. Davis, the organization's president.
Winners will be named at the Saturday evening, May 1, annual banquet at the Radisson Hotel in Austin. Judges made decisions in nine categories including fiction, first fiction, non-fiction, scholarly books, short stories, poetry, book design, magazine journalism, and children's books published during the year.
The institute was founded in 1936 to recognize literary achievement and to promote interest in Texas literature. Authors must have lived in Texas for at least two years or their works must relate to the state.
Jesse Jones Award for Fiction ($6,000): Scott Blackwood,
We Agreed to Meet Just Here (New Issues Press); Oscar Casares, Amigoland (Little, Brown); and Cristina Henriquez, The World in Half (Penguin Group).Carr P. Collins Award for Nonfiction ($5,000): Bryan Burrough,
The Big Rich: The Rise and Fall of the Greatest Texas Oil Fortunes (Penguin Press); Tracy Daugherty, Hiding Man: A Biography of Donald Barthelme (St. Martin's Press); Steve Davis, J. Frank Dobie: A Liberated Mind (University of Texas Press); and Bill Sloan, The Darkest Summer: Pusan and Inchon 1950, The Battles That Saved South Korea—and the Marines—From Extinction (Simon & Schuster).Steven Turner Award for First Fiction ($1,000): John Pipkin,
Woodsburner (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday); Barbara Renaud Gonzalez, Golondrina, Why Did You Leave Me? (University of Texas Press); and Lowell Mick White, Long Time Ago Good (Slough Press).TIL Award for Scholarly Book ($2,500): Mary Jo O'Rear,
Storm Over the Bay: The People of Corpus Christi and Their Port (Gulf Coast Books); Gene B. Preuss, To Get a Better School System: One Hundred Years of Education Reform in Texas (Texas A&M Press); Emilio Zamora, Claiming Rights and Righting Wrongs in Texas: Mexican Workers and Job Politics During World War II (Texas A&M Press).Helen C. Smith Memorial Award for Poetry ($1,200): Wendy Barker,
Nothing Between Us (De Sol Press); William Virgil Davis, Landscape and Journey (Ivan R. Dee); James Hoggard, Triangles of Light: The Edward Hopper Poems (Wings Press); and John Poch, Dolls (Orchises Press).O. Henry Award for Magazine Journalism ($1,000): Pamela Colloff, "Flesh and Blood," June 2009,
Texas Monthly; Michael Hall, "The Judgment of Sharon Keller," August 2009, Texas Monthly; and John Spong, "Holding Garmsir," January 2009, Texas Monthly.Austin Public Library Friends Foundation Award for Children's Book ($500): Benjamin Alire Saenz,
The Dog Who Loved Tortillas (Cinco Puntos Press); Gwendolyn Zepeda, Sunflowers/ Girasoles (Pinada Books).Kay Cattarulla Award for Short Story ($1,000): John Henry Irsfeld, "Drifting Too Far,"
New South, Spring/Summer 2009; Marjorie Kempner, "Discovering America," Southwest Review, Fall 2009; and Jaina Sanga, "The Good Price." Asia Literary Review, Autumn 2009.Fred Whitehead Award for Design of a Trade Book ($750): Lindsay Starr,
"I Do Not Apologize for the Length of This Letter": The Mari Sandoz Letters on Native American Rights, 1940-1965, (Texas Tech University Press); Lindsay Starr, Sex, Murder, and the Unwritten Law Courting Judicial Mayhem, Texas Style, (Texas Tech University Press); and Thomas Fink, The Man's Book (Little, Brown).No awards were given in the Stanley Walker Award for Best Work of Newspaper Journalism Appearing in Newspaper or Sunday Supplement; the
Friends of Austin Public Library Award for Best Young Adult Book, or the Soeurette Diehl Fraser Award for Best Translation of a Book. The Fraser Award is given every two years, and it will be awarded in 2011 for books published in 2009 or 2010."
Review by Dick Stanley, author of Leaving The Alamo: Texas Stories After Vietnam, The Texas Scribbler at http://texasscribbler.com/
"This is a dandy historical novel of the German settlement of the Hill Country which I recommend with caveats. I was familiar with the basic facts but learned a few things, such as the details of Baron Meuesbach's peace treaty with the Comanches. It was unique in
As a two-time indie author, I finally realized that I had yet to read someone else's indie book. I figured author Celia Hayes (the blogosphere and Milblogging's "Sgt. Mom") and her Adelsverein Texana trilogy was the best place to start. It was a good decision. This first book of the trilogy paints an epic in satisfying old-fashioned style that effectively lures a lover of such reads on and on.
Now the caveats: Hayes leaves almost nothing to the reader's imagination. That can grate on folks raised on movies and television. Unlike readers of the 19th century, we don't need exhaustive description of major and minor actors. I also could have done without all the adverbs. Seemingly every speech is characterized, rather than trusting to the context to convey the meaning. Nevertheless, the main characters are real and lovable and their tragedies and joys won my empathy and spurred my curiosity to find out what would happen to them next.
I was appalled at the typos and misspellings, by my count on 46 of the book's 365 pages. Surely, most of them could have been avoided, and a second edition to fix them is warranted. Still, Hayes is sufficiently talented and her story so well crafted that I will buy the second installment, "The Sowing." It concerns the Civil War years, during which the real German settlers had the ill-luck to be Unionists in a predominantly Confederate state. I want to find out how the Beckers and the Steinmetzs fare. Tragedy ahead, I expect. I'll be hoping, though, to find that the proofreading has improved."
"As Robert Perkinson points out in "Texas Tough," his very readable history of U.S. prisons, locking up people is big business. America sends more people to prison per capita than any other country in the world, locking up about one out of every 100 people.Si Dunn in the Dallas News reviews Exploring the Edges of Texas By Walt and Isabel Davis.
The review begins: "
In 1955, Dallas Morning News columnist Frank X. Tolbert set off on an expedition that would span a greater distance than the length of the Amazon River. Many readers were enthralled by the tales that emerged each week as the writer and his 9-year-old son, Frank Tolbert Jr., circumnavigated the Texas border in a dusty Willis Jeep.
Tolbert's tales struck an especially deep chord with Walt Davis, who was then 13 and living in Oak Cliff. Young Walt vowed he would someday make his own trek through the counties that outline his home state.
A half-century later, Walt Davis and his wife, Isabel, finally had the time and resources to undertake "a four thousand mile-long, three-century-deep exploration of the edge of Texas." Family responsibilities and other realities, however, kept them from duplicating the late columnist's arduous excursion. Instead, they broke their journey into sections. They made multiple trips to different border areas, with Isabel keeping travel journals and research notes, Walt serving as "the expedition artist," and both writing about their adventures and observations." Read more at
http://www.tamu.edu/upress/ http://www.joanuptonhall.com
Ed Blackburn, the late, retired, newspaperman, would be enjoying Just Visitin, by Joan Upton Hall, the retired English teacher. I know I do. They've both been captivated, if not incarcerated, by our jails.
Her volume is chock-full of about 50 jails across the state which can be visited by tourists especially because they've been converted to modern use by local historical societies, art galleries, jail history fans, bed and breakfast conversions, commercial use, office use, and yes, friends and neighbors, even a residence. Some figure a one among several structures at the same site. Arranged alphabetically by town from
A
The oldest jail included is the 1854
Before you escape through the book's back door, you'll find several other categories: "Just Waiting" for the structures not open to the public, "Just Pretending" for Selma's Hooter's Bar & Grill, "Jail Residence" for the Benjamin hoosegow, and "Just Abandoned" for, well, derelicts. The following short glossary is technical about construction, locking systems and mechanisms such as the "squint box."
Pick up a pass, and squint at the book. The chapterlettes are alluring.
Lunar Braceros, 2125-2148. A novella by Rosaura Sanchez and Beatrice Pita. http://www.calacapress.com http://myspace.com/calacalanda
Calaca provides this description: "A futuristic sci-fi novella from the perspective of the underdog by Rosaura Sánchez and Beatrice Pita. Featuring cover art and illustrations by
Authors Sanchez and Pita are both college professors; Sanchez having gotten her Ph.D. from UT, thereby accounting for some of the very light
The writing follows in the fragmentary tradition with changing type font to accent the changing persons' perspective. Largely the pieces are "letters" to Pedro, a young son, still on earth and subject to the capitalist hegemony that rules the Earth through the New Imperial Order. Shifting eco-political boundaries have created Cali-Texas which also includes Northern Mexico,
It's a rather creative, if difficult to follow, plot which shifts from
Even so, Lunar Braceros is refreshing for its sweep of terrain and politics and philosophy.
The Cuckleburr brings a review of The Shimmer by David Morrell. The comments begin: 
Raul Ramos makes a guest posting on the University of North Carolina Press blog regarding his Beyond the Alamo: Forging Mexican Ethnicity in San Antonio, 1821-1861. See Mike at http://www.mikekearby.com
Rails Around Houston. By Douglas L. Weiskopf. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2009. paperback, many photos, 128 pages, ISBN 9780738558844, the ticket's only $21.99, round trip, front to back. All aboard!
The Feminist Review comments on Cynthia Orozco's new volume: 
"The most important thing in any culture is stories, a history. Folklore that is passed from father to son across generations are essential. I don't know where I would be had it not been for the "camp fire" stories from my grandfather, or those moralistic tales told by my grandmother. Valleysong is a collection of such stories, essays that remember the past of looking toward the future. 
A State of Disobedience
