Lone Star ReviewsMichelle Newby, NBCC,

Contributing Editor

MYSTERY/THRILLER

Brett Burlison

Barton Creek Press

Paperback, 978-0-9969696-0-4 (ebook also available), 348 pages, $13.95; January 2016

Riverside by Brett Burlison is a well-written mystery thriller that deftly captures the atmosphere of its Austin settings in the early 1990s. Readers who know the Texas capital city will recognize many neighborhoods and establishments not far from the sprawling University of Texas at Austin campus. >>READ MORE

Texas ReadsGlenn Dromgoole

>> archive

Cookbook stirs up memories as well as recipes

Longtime Texas Highways senior editor Nola McKey has written a cookbook that stirs up memories as well as recipes. From Tea Cakes to Tamales: Third-Generation Texas Recipes (Texas A&M University Press, $29.95 flexbound) includes more than 100 recipes that have been passed down from grandmothers, great-grandmothers, great-aunts and, in a few cases, grandfathers and great-uncles.

McKey began her quest with recipes from her own family and friends, then expanded the search to represent the culinary heritage of Texas’s various ethnic cultures. All the recipes go back at least three generations, and some are fifth- and sixth-generation Texas cuisine.

More than half of the recipes are for desserts — cakes, pies, cookies and puddings — which seems appropriate. Isn’t that what you remember most fondly from your own grandmother’s kitchen?

Meatless: Laura Samuel Meyn of Fort Worth and Anthony Head of Hays County have produced a colorful cookbook, Meatless in Cowtown: A Vegetarian Guide to Food and Wine, Texas-Style (Running Press, $22 paperback).

A few examples: Buck Up Vegetarian Vegetable Soup, Meatless in Cowtown Frito Pie, Enchiladas for a Crowd, White Cheddar-Green Chile Mac and Cheese, Grilled Tofu Steaks with Sweet and Spicy Barbecue Sauce, and Tamale Pie with Black Beans and Sweet Potato, as well as a host of desserts. Meatless in Cowtown is one of the featured cookbooks at the upcoming Culinary Cuisine Luncheon and Texas Cookbook Gala, part of the West Texas Book Festival in Abilene. Read more at abilenetx.com/apl.

Cowgirl recipes: Chef, caterer, and cooking show host Christine Gardner of Palestine, Texas, is the author of the pocket-sized Celebrations from a Cowgirl’s Kitchen: Texas Fiestas, Fandangos & Feasts (Great Texas Line Press, $7.50 paperback).

More than 80 recipes are included in the menus for 11 Texas-themed parties, such as a vintage bridal brunch, a Sunday church potluck, a Fourth of July fish fry, a wild game gathering, and a cattleman’s cocktail party. Each party event includes an introduction setting the scene and six to eight menu items. Of course, readers are welcome to simply pick out their favorite items and create their own party menu.

Tortillas: Eat More Tortillas by Donna Kelly and Stephanie Ashcraft (Gibbs Smith, $16.99 hardcover) should have a lot of appeal to Texas cooks. The full-color book offers dozens of mouth-watering recipes using tortillas, such as Green Chile Eggs Benedict, Tortilla Quiches, Tuna Melt Triangles, Slow Cooker Burrito Casserole, Tex-Mex Meatloaf, and Sloppy Joe Tacos.

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

Meacham to receive A. C. Greene Award at 16th annual West Texas Book Festival, Sept. 19-24, Abilene

Leila Meacham, the national New York Times best-selling author of Roses, Tumbleweeds, Somerset, Titans, and more will be the featured keynote speaker Sat., Sept. 24, at the West Texas Book Festival and will be recognized as this year’s A.C. Greene award winner. The A.C. Greene award is presented annually to a distinguished Texas author for lifetime achievement. The award is named for author, columnist, and Abilene native A.C. Greene.

The sixteenth annual festival, September 19-24, 2016, will also feature panels with other authors. >>READ MORE

LONE STAR LISTENS interviews >> archive

Kay Ellington, Editor and Publisher

9.11.2016 Tim Z. Hernandez: On Herrera, Guthrie, Kerouac’s Bea Franco, and connecting with Texas roots

Award-winning novelist, poet, and performance artist Tim Z. Hernandez lives in El Paso, where he is putting the finishing touches on a documentary that complements his latest book, All They Will Call You. Based on his research surrounding the plane crash at Los Gatos Canyon, a tragedy made famous by Woody Guthrie’s song, the book is slated to be released in January 2017.

He took time away from this important work to talk with Lone Star Literary Life via email.

LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE: Tim, you were born in Dinuba, California, and raised in central California’s San Joaquin Valley, but you have family roots in Texas. What is your family’s Texas connection?

TIM Z. HERNANDEZ: Texas is my ancestral homeland on my father’s side. My relatives have been there, in the Rio Grande Valley, since it was Mexico. All the stories that make up our familial memory take place in Texas: love, death, hopes, struggle, all of it happened on that landscape. My father was the last one born in Texas, before the family followed the migrant farmworkers’ trail north and ended up putting roots down in the San Joaquin Valley, where field work was abundant. My mother’s side comes from New Mexico, but she also spent a large part of her life in Texas. So, I heard these stories growing up, and by the time I moved to El Paso to work with the University of Texas El Paso, it many ways it felt like I was returning home. >>READ MORE

Texas’s only statewide, weekly calendar of book events

Bookish Texas event highlights 9.11.2016
>> GO this week Michelle Newby, Contributing Editor

FESTIVALS AND SPECIAL EVENTS IN TEXAS THIS WEEK: Fort Worth, Houston, Midland, Mansfield, Maxwell, Round TopHOUSTON Mon., Sept. 12 Brazos Bookstore, James Dennis reads from and signs his debut poetry collection CORRESPONDENCE IN D MINOR, 7PMAUSTIN Tues., Sept. 13 O. Henry Museum, O. Henry’s 154th Birthday Party, a fundraiser featuring Skip Hollandsworth discussing and signing The Midnight Assassin: Panic, Scandal, and the Hunt for America’s First Serial Killer, 7PMWACO Tues., Sept. 13 Texas Sports Hall of Fame, Chad Conine signs The Republic of Football, 7PMDALLAS Wed., Sept. 14, Deep Vellum Books, Jessica Luther discusses and signs Unsportsmanlike Conduct, 6:30PMDALLAS Thurs., Sept. 15, The Wild Detectives, Richard J. Gonzales reads and signs Raza Rising: Chicanos in North Texas, 7:30PMMIDLAND Fri., Sept. 16, Centennial Library, award-winning authors and illustrators Don Tate, Cory Putman Oakes, and Christina Soontornvat sign their books, 4:30PMHOUSTON Sat., Sept. 17, River Oaks Bookstore, Dr. Catherine Musemeche discusses and signs Hurt: The Inspiring, Untold Story of Trauma Care, 3PMHOUSTON Sun., Sept. 18, Meyerland Performing and Visual Arts Middle School, Inprint presents Cool Brains! with Nathan Hale, author of the Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales series, 3PM

News Briefs 9.11.16

Lone Star Literary’s Tour of Texas, Fall 2016

A recent swing through Fort Worth provided Lone Star Literary Life a chance to visit several literary locales. We stopped in to say hi to Rebecca Allen (at right, below, with Barbara Brannon, left, and Kay Ellington) and the other staff of TCU Press, then paid a call to several of the city’s bookstores, which we’ll feature in next week’s issue.

If you haven’t patronized the grand Fort Worth Public Library central branch (built in the heart of downtown in 1999), put it on your travel list: not only is the Texas Literary Hall of Fame embodied there in a striking mural and a display case, it’s an elegant and welcoming home for all things bookish. >>READ MORE

Second annual Permian Basin Writers’ Workshop slated for Midland Sept. 16–18

The Permian Basin Writers’ Workshop returns to Midland this fall, with a diverse lineup of presenters, speakers, agents, editors, and authors. The event kicks off Friday evening, Sept. 16, 7:30–8:30 p.m. at Midland’s historic Yucca Theatre and continues throughout Saturday and Sunday on the campus of Midland College.

Author and journalist ReShonda Tate Billingsley will give a keynote presentation Friday evening, “When Words Leave the Page,” as part of a program featuring refreshments and author performances.

Billingsley is the national bestselling author of more than forty books. She writes adult and teen fiction as well as nonfiction. Several of her books have been optioned for movies, including her sophomore novel, Let the Church Say Amen, directed by actress Regina King, and produced by TD Jakes and Queen Latifah. Billingsley made her on-screen movie debut in the film, which aired in August 2015 and was one of BET’s highest rated original programs. TV One recently released the TV version of her book The Secret She Kept on July 10, 2016 and will be airing The Devil is a Lie in fall 2016.>>READ MORE

Kaling added to 2016 Texas Teen Book Festival lineup

Award-winning Actress, Comedian, and Writer to Speak at TTBF on October 1

Mindy Kaling, creator and star of the critically acclaimed series The Mindy Project, will join this year’s stellar roster of authors at the 2016 Texas Teen Book Festival on Sat., Oct. 1, 2016, at St. Edward’s University. Kaling will discuss both of her comedic memoirs with Sarah Pitre of Alamo Drafthouse Cinema and Forever YA Book Club.

Admission to Kaling’s discussion is free. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis and will take place at 10:15 a.m. at the St. Edward’s University Recreation and Convocation Center. Prior to the discussion, Kaling will sign copies of both of her books, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) and Why Not Me? The signing is limited to the first 250 people who purchase either book from the Festival store. The Festival store will open at 8:00 a.m. in the Alumni Gym. >>READ MORE