Lone Star ReviewsMichelle Newby, NBCC,
Contributing Editor
Texas ReadsGlenn Dromgoole
>> archive
Gardening books offer inspiration, practical tips
It’s spring, or almost, and many homeowners’ thoughts turn to yards and gardens this time of year.
Three colorful new books from Texas A&M University Press offer inspiration and practical tips to help gardeners make the most of their efforts.
Gardening writer Bill Scheick says his Adventures in Texas Gardening ($26 flexbound, 224 pages) “is designed as a conversational, yet hopefully helpful, account of how things went for me and for some other Texas gardening addicts I met over the years.” He deals with such topics as transforming an entire back yard, coping with pets, squirrels and wildlife, “subversive unlawning,” growing a Christmas tree, and orchids for everyone.
“The stories told here,” he writes, “are about pushing back against gardening challenges, embracing gardening constraints, rethinking gardening possibilities, and learning to care most about those plants that exhibit a can-do spirit in our Texas yards. “In the course of my gardening adventures,” he adds, “I have zeroed in on some plants and strategies that worked.”
Kenneth E. Spaeth Jr., a plant soil scientist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, suggests a simplified, natural gardening approach in his Circle Gardening: Growing Vegetables Outside the Box ($36 flexbound, 380 pages).
Spaeth advocates arranging plants in a concentrated circle rather than in rows, a method he claims is “as old as agriculture.” He says his book is “a step-by-step guide for the beginner but also contains more advanced plans that you can use as your confidence and experience grow.”
He hopes to inspire readers to start a vegetable garden and achieve success using less space, money, resources and time.
The first section deals with gardening essentials such as ecology, soil, climate, design, and pest and weed control. The second section covers specific types of vegetables with chapters on beans, carrots, broccoli and cabbage, squash and cucumbers, onions, peppers, lettuce and spinach, and tomatoes.
In a little different tack, Texas A&M horticulturists Greg Grant and William C. Welch teamed up to write The Rose Rustlers ($30 flexbound, 244 pages), billed as a personal, in-depth and entertaining account of their efforts to help save antique heirloom roses from extinction.
“We present tales — some long, some short, and some tall — of the many efforts that have helped restore lost roses to not only residential gardens, but also commercial and church landscapes in Texas,” the authors write. Grant enumerates the “rules of rustling,” which include not trespassing on private property, asking permission to propagate a plant, taking only cuttings (not the entire plant), tidying up the parent plant, and writing down the name of the owner and the location for future reference.
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Glenn Dromgoole has been writing his Texas Reads column since 2002, focusing on Texas books and authors. Contact him at g.dromgoole@suddenlink.net.
>> Check out his previous Texas Reads columns in Lone Star Literary Life
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2018 TEXAS BOOKISH DESTINATIONS
Can you name this literary place in the Lone Star State?
Admit it: bookfans love traveling almost as much as they love reading itself. Beginning March 4, 2018, Lone Star Literary Life will roll out #10 through #6 in our annual list of Top Texas Bookish Destinations, for readers who want to visit the settings of their favorite books, the birthplaces and haunts of favorite authors, and hot spots for book buying, readings, and other literary activity.
But throughout Texas’s 268,597 square miles, there are also lots of out-of-the-way points of interest that we don’t always have space to cover in our Top Ten pages.
Watch this space each week for a new bookish place that you’ll want to add to your own travel list. Be the first to email us with the correct identification, and win a prize!
This week, we continue with a bookish place that’s located in 2017’s #2 Top Bookish Destination. There’s plenty of poetry in this literary-rich city, but there’s a Poet Tree, too. Can you name the city? And extra credit for telling our readers the neighborhood or street where they can find it, too.
Email us at info@LoneStarLiterary.com with the specific right answer, and we’ll send you a free copy of Literary Texas.
LAST WEEK’S PHOTO (below) was correctly identified as the Capitol Gift Shop, inside the state capitol building in Austin. Congratulations — your prize is on the way!
TOP BOOKISH TEXAS DESTINATIONS 2018
From the spur of Texas’s boot-heel to the tip of the toe, we’ve traveled the state in search of some delectable destinations for book lovers. Check out #10 through #6 on our 2018 list this week—then next Sunday we’ll reveal the top 5 plus some honorable mentions. >>READ MORE
introducing LONE STAR LIT’S NEWEST FEATURE
LONE STAR LISTENS interviews >> archive
Author interviews by Kay Ellington
3.4.2018 Journalist Bryan Mealer takes on his Texas hometown roots in THE KINGS OF BIG SPRING
It takes real writing skill to tackle the social history of a state, an entire industry, and the Almighty. But it takes real guts to tackle it in the context of your own ancestors. Bryan Mealer weaves together these sweeping elements to craft a powerful memoir, The Kings of Big Spring: God, Oil, and One Family’s Search for the American Dream (Flatiron Books, Feb. 6, 2018), which came out last month to high acclaim. As Mealer observes in the book’s early pages, “Only in Texas was there enough space for so many second acts.” We caught up with him via email to discuss Texas’s resurrection stories, and his own family’s part in some of them.
LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE: Bryan, you were born in Odessa, Texas, and grew up in there — plus Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Alvin, Big Spring, and San Antonio, Texas. Despite moving around a bit with your family, tell us why Big Spring, Texas, is the locale that defines your family’s history?
BRYAN MEALER: Big Spring was where my grandparents lived, where my father and his siblings were born, and where many of my relatives still lived. It was where we’d finally put down roots after years wandering before the Depression. Big Spring was where my family had been the closest, where we’d had our very best years together.
The Kings of Big Spring: God, Oil, and One Family’s Search for the American Dream is your fourth book. Up until now, your topics and interests have taken you from Austin to Brooklyn, from Kenya to Congo to Florida. What inspired you to write this book?
I’d always wanted to tell the story of how my dad and his friend, Grady Cunningham, had started an oil company together in the early ’80s and lived the honky-tonk dream: taking chartered jets to Dallas to buy Rolexes and gold-nugget rings, to the Bahamas for impromptu vacations with a huge entourage. >>READ MORE
Texas’s only statewide, weekly calendar of book events
Bookish Texas event highlights 3.4.2018>> GO this weekMichelle Newby, Contributing Editor
SPECIAL EVENTS THIS WEEK
- Humanities Texas presents Texas Storytime: A Family Reading Program, Midland, February 8-March 15
- 122nd Annual Texas State Historical Association Annual Meeting, San Marcos, March 8-10
- The Medieval World in a Spanish Context, Dallas, March 8-9
- 33rd Annual Texas Storytelling Festival, Denton, March 8-11
- Houston Writers House Spring Event: How to Write a Bestseller with Robert Dugoni, Bellaire, March 10
ODESSA Mon., Mar. 5 UTPB Library, Public Lecture: Professor Dominic Boyer and Associate Professor Cymene Howe present “What Is Energy Humanities”, part of “Boom or Bust: A Collection and Study of Energy Narratives”, 12PM
SAN ANTONIO Tues., Mar. 6 Presidio Gallery, Lecture and Book Signing with Bill Neeley, author of A TEJANO KNIGHT: THE QUEST OF DON JUAN SEGUIN, 6pm
AUSTIN Wed., Mar. 7 LBJ Library, a conversation between Joseph Califano, Jr. and Bob Schieffer, who will be discussing Califano’s new book, Our Damaged Democracy: We the People Must Act, 6PM [a Friends event]
ODESSA Wed., Mar. 7 UTPB, Creative nonfiction writing workshop with Dr. Jason Lagapa, part of “Boom or Bust: A Collection and Study of Energy Narratives”, 7PM
DALLAS Thurs., Mar. 8 The Wild Detectives, Despina Stratigakos will present her book Where Are the Women Architects? (in conversation with Jessica Stewart Lendvay), 7:30PM
SAN ANTONIO Thurs., Mar. 8 Trinity University, Gemini Ink Autograph Series: Margaret Atwood, world-renowned novelist and author of The Handmaid’s Tale, will present a public reading, Q&A, and book signing, 7PM
SAN MARCOS Thurs., Mar. 8 Texas State – Alkek Library, The Wittliff presents PEN USA-winning authors Steve Davis (the Wittliff’s literary curator) and Bill Minutaglio discussing their acclaimed new book, The Most Dangerous Man in America: Timothy Leary, Richard Nixon and the Hunt for the Fugitive King of LSD (moderated by Dr. Mark Busby), 3:30PM
IRVING Fri., Mar. 9 West Irving Library, Rachel Caine and Ann Aguirre discussing and signing their latest YA book, Honor Among Thieves, 7PM
ALSO SIGNING IN HOUSTON Sun., Mar. 11 Murder By the Book, 2PM
HOUSTON Sat., Mar. 10 Brazos Bookstore, Spring Break Kickoff: Houston author and 5th generation Texan Melanie Chrismer entertains with her Western tall tale, PHOEBE CLAPSADDLE, and teaches some roping skills, 10:30AM
HOUSTON Sat., Mar. 10 River Oaks Bookstore, Paul Petronella discussing and signing Paulie’s: Classic Italian Cooking in the Heart of Houston’s Montrose District, 7PM
AUSTIN Sun., Mar. 11 BookWoman, Sarah Webb launches her new book of poetry, Red Riding Hood’s Sister, 4PM
EL PASO Sun., Mar. 11 rdovino’s Desert Crossing, Kermit “Kim” Schweidel discussing and signing Folly Cove: A Smuggler’s True Tale of the Pot Rebellion, 5:30PM
News Briefs 3.4.18
14th Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference to explore balance between informing and entertaining readers, July 20–22
DENTON — This summer’s Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference will explore how journalists balance writing stories that are factually credible while writing entertaining stories. “Are You Not Entertained? Real Stories, Real People, Real Storytelling” — The 14th annual Mayborn Conferece, hosted by the University of North Texas’s Frank W. Mayborn Graduate Institute of Journalism, will feature keynote speakers are Diana B. Henriques, author of The Wizard of Lies: Bernie Madoff and the Death of Trust; Lindy West, contributing essayist for the New York Times; and Christopher Goffard, feature writer for the Los Angeles Times and multiple Pulitzer Prize finalist. >>READ MORE
BookPeople’s Steve Bercu to retire
AUSTIN —Steve Bercu, who has been CEO of Austin’s independent bookstore BookPeople for almost 20 years, plans to retire from full-time bookselling this coming June.
As part of the transition, Elizabeth Jordan has been named general manager of BookPeople. She has worked at the store since 2002 as a bookseller, manager, adult book buyer and inventory operations supervisor. In her new position, she will oversee day-to-day operations of the store, with an emphasis on improving communication among departments, creating efficiencies and increasing sales. >>READ MORE
OBITUARY
Bill Crider
Texas author Bill Crider, “someone who wore nearly every hat in the mystery field–author, critic, columnist, reviewer,” died Feb. 12, 2018. He was 76. In a tribute, Janet Hutchings, editor of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, wrote: “I’ve known Bill since 1990, when I bought the first book in his Truman Smith series (a book that went on to be nominated for the Shamus Award for best first P.I. novel) for the mystery line at Walker Books. When you consider Bill’s incredible output–a half-dozen different mystery series (comprising more than 40 books), plus at least 16 standalones in genres outside the mystery, from horror to western to adventure, and five children’s books — what stands out like a beacon is his modesty about it all.>>READ MORE
————— A D V E R T I S E M E N T —————
Lone Star Listens compilation available spring 2018, for readers, fans, and writers everywhere
The present generation of Texas authors is the most diverse ever in gender, age, and ethnicity, and in subject matter as well.
Week in, week out, Lone Star Literary has interviewed a range of Texas-related authors with a cross-section of genre and geography. To capture this era in Texas letters, we’re pleased to bring you
Lone Star Listens:
Texas Authors on Writing and Publishing
edited by Kay Ellington and Barbara Brannon; introduction by Clay Reynolds
Available in trade paper, library hardcover, and ebook Spring 2018
360 pages, with b/w illustrations and index
Featuring novelists, poets, memoirists, editors, and publishers, including:
Rachel Caine • Chris Cander • Katherine Center • Chad S. Conine • Sarah Cortez • Elizabeth Crook • Nan Cuba • Carol Dawson • Patrick Dearen • Jim Donovan • Mac Engel • Sanderia Faye • Carlos Nicolás Flores • Ben Fountain • Jeff Guinn • Stephen Harrigan • Cliff Hudder • Stephen Graham Jones • Kathleen Kent • Joe R. Lansdale • Melissa Lenhardt • Attica Locke • Nikki Loftin • Thomas McNeely • Leila Meacham • John Pipkin • Joyce Gibson Roach • Antonio Ruiz-Camacho • Lisa Sandlin • Donna Snyder • Mary Helen Specht • Jodi Thomas • Amanda Eyre Ward • Ann Weisgarber • Donald Mace Williams
As a collection of insights into the writing and publishing life, the book will be useful in creative writing classes (not just in Texas alone) and other teaching settings, as well as for solo reading and study—and a great Texas reference volume.
- Examination and review copies will be available fall 2017 in watermarked pdf format.
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