Lone Star ReviewsMichelle Newby, NBCC,
Contributing Editor
Texas ReadsGlenn Dromgoole
>> archiveTwo books focus on Texas lore, culture
Two new attractive hardback books make it their mission to try to explain — in an entertaining way — what it means to be a Texan.
How to Be a Texan: The Manual by Andrea Valdez (University of Texas Press, $21.95) is the more serious and comprehensive of the two, but it is quite engaging as well. Valdez wrote “The Manual” column for Texas Monthly magazine for several years before becoming editor of the magazine’s web site, so she is certainly well-versed in Texas lore and culture. She divides the book into eight sections, with several sub-topics in each chapter. The chapters are Talk Like a Texan, Look Like a Texan, Rites of Passage, Tend the Ranch, Hunting and Fishing, Cook Like a Texan, Relax Like a Texan, and Tour Like a Texan.
Much of the book is written in a how-to style, such as how to buy custom cowboy boots, how to shoot a .22, how to shoe a horse, how to field dress a deer, how to cook King Ranch chicken or Frito pie, how to play 42, how to dance the two-step.
Y’all Need This Book: The Definitive Guide to Being a Texan by Jay B. Sauceda (Gibbs Smith, $19.95) covers a lot of the same ground but in a more graphic — or heavily illustrated — style.
Sauceda divides his book into seven sections – Teachin’ Texan, Texan Traits, Talkin’ Texan, Dressin’ Texan, Texan Traditions, Eatin’ Texan and Drivin’ Texan. But he takes a more light-hearted approach, relying a lot more on pictures and illustrations to get his messages across.
One rather peculiar entry is the “Texas Road Trip Simulator,” fourteen black and white pages showing an empty highway. Readers are invited to slowly turn the pages and imagine that they are driving from San Antonio to El Paso — and then repeat the process an additional 828 times to get the full experience of making the trip.
Another entry is a graphic “guide to understanding y’all.” It shows a picture of one man — that’s “you” — then two men (“y’all), then four men (“all y’all”).
Two books, two different styles, both with the same focus: helping readers understand and celebrate what is special about being a Texan.
So which would I recommend? Probably the more authoritative Valdez book if you like to read. If you’d rather flip through a book and look at the pictures and scan the limited text, the Sauceda volume might be more to your liking (or likin’, as we say in Texas).
Glenn Dromgoole is co-author of 101 Essential Texas Books. Contact him at g.dromgoole@suddenlink.net.
>> Check out his previous Texas Reads columns in Lone Star Literary Life
LONE STAR LISTENS interviews >> archive
Kay Ellington, Editor and Publisher
6.26.2016 Judy Alter:
A remarkable life in Texas letters
For the greater part of five decades, Judy Alter has been a force in Texas letters, as an editor, a press director, and an author. With nearly eighty books of her own published, she’s not slowing down in retirement, but she paused to answer a few questions from us about her life in literature.
LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE: Judy, your work has been recognized with awards from the Western Writers of America, the Texas Institute of Letters, and the National Cowboy Museum and Hall of Fame. You’ve been honored with the Owen Wister Award for Lifetime Achievement by WWA and inducted into both the Texas Literary Hall of Fame and the WWA Hall of Fame. But how did you get started in this business?
JUDY ALTER: Just out of graduate school, I read a friend’s mother’s memoir and itched to do something with it. Being taught to support, defend, document, all I could do was annotate it. Some YA books inspired me to turn it into fiction, and it was marketed to a YA audience. That was After Pa Was Shot. I caught the fiction bug right then. >>READ MORE
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
2016 Kids’ Summer Reading: Check it out!
sponsored by Blue Wilow Bookshop
From read-to-me books to early readers, chapter books to middle readers to young adult, you’ll find these terrific new titles at your neighborhood bookstore. >>READ MORE
Lone Star Literary Life reveals our 2016 Texas Readers’ Favorite Bookstores TOP TEN
Texas readers have spoken! More than 1,000 of Lone Star Literary Life’s readers have cast ballots in our statewide contest to recognize Texas’s favorite bookstores. Their selections are as diverse as the state itself, and honorees include big indies, small indies, chain stores, used bookstores, and new bookstores in every far-flung corner of the state.
From the shadows of Houston’s skyscrapers to the winds whistling down the plains, from the Piney Woods of East Texas to the beachside burbs on the coast, Texas bookshops are connecting with their communities, and we are thrilled to have the opportunity to showcase Texas’s Top Ten Favorite Bookstores. Today, we unveil the full results of your votes! >>READ MORE
Texas’s only statewide, weekly calendar of book events
Bookish Texas event highlights 6.26.2016
>> GO this week Michelle Newby, Contributing Editor
News Briefs 6.26.16
CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS
Writers’ League of Texas Agents & Editors
The annual Writers’ League of Texas Agents & Editors Conference wraps up today in Austin. Pen/Faulkner award winner Benjamin Alire Saenz gave the keynote address on Saturday.
Below, top: Director Becka Oliver (standing) kicks off the conference with panelists; bottom: literary agent Ann Collette of the Rees Agency shares her insights about suspense writing.
Texas Book Festival 2016 leads off with Bush mother and daughter, Ha Jin, Arce, Cronin, Hollandsworth, Myles, Semple, Witliff, and more
The Texas Book Festival has announced sixteen of the authors who will participate in this year’s Texas Book Festival, happening November 5 and 6 in and around the State Capitol grounds in Austin. (The festival’s full 2016 lineup will be announced in early September; the festival, in its 21st year, plans to bring more than 250 acclaimed authors to the capital.) >>READ MORE
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COMING UP ON TOUR: FICTION
GUARDIANS IN BLUE
by Ken Bangs
Visit with Ken June 28 through July 7
6/28 My Book Fix Blog – Review
6/29 Books and Broomsticks – Excerpt #1
6/30 Missus Gonzo – Review
7/1 The Crazy Booksellers – Promo
7/2 StoreyBook Reviews – Author Interview #1
7/3 The Librarian Talks – Review
7/4 It’s a Jenn World – Promo
7/5 The Page Unbound – Excerpt #2
7/6 Country Girl Bookaholic – Review
7/7 Margie’s Must Reads – Author Interview #2
COMING UP ON TOUR: FICTION
WINNING TEXAS
by Nancy Stancill
Visit with Nancy June 30 – July 9
6/30 Texas Book Lover – Promo
7/1 The Librarian Talks – Review
7/2 Margie’s Must Reads – Excerpt
7/3 A Novel Reality — Promo
7/4 Country Girl Bookaholic – Review
7/5 The Crazy Booksellers – Promo
7/6 The Page Unbound – Guest Post
7/7 Blogging for the Love of Authors and Their Books – Review
7/8 Forgotten Winds – Author Interview
7/9 StoreyBook Reviews – Review
COMING ON TOUR: TEXAS SPORTS
WEST TEXAS MIDDLEWEIGHT
by Frank Sikes
Visit with Frank July 1 through July 10
7/1 Country Girl Bookaholic – Review
7/2 My Book Fix Blog – Author Interview #1
7/3 Forgotten Winds – Guest Post #1
7/4 Margie’s Must Reads – Review
7/5 Blogging for the Love of Authors and Their Books – Promo
7/6 StoreyBook Reviews – Author Interview #2
7/7 Book Chase – Review
7/8 The Page Unbound – Author Interview #3
7/9 Missus Gonzo – Guest Post #2
7/10 It’s a Jenn World – Review
RECENTLY ON TOUR: FICTION
THE DARKNESS THAT COULD BE FELT
by C. Wayne Dawson
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