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/ |
A State of Disobedience
