Lone Star ReviewsMichelle Newby, NBCC,
Contributing Editor
POLITICAL BIOGRAPHY
Joan Mellen
Faustian Bargains: Lyndon Johnson and Mac Wallace in the Robber Baron Culture of Texas
Bloomsbury USA
Hardcover (ebook), 978-1-62040-806-3, 384 pages, $28.00; September 13, 2016
A “Faustian bargain” is a deal with the Devil. You give your soul to Beelzebub in return for a chance to satisfy your greed for power, love, or knowledge.
In Joan Mellen’s controversial new book, Lyndon Baines Johnson, America’s thirty-sixth president, sometimes comes across as virtually the Devil himself — a “powerful and profoundly amoral public figure”—who ruthlessly strikes backroom deals with several Fausts while advancing his own personal and political agendas.
“This is a chronicle of the dark side of Lyndon Johnson and of the collateral damage wrought by his actions,” Mellen writes. Noting that other books have focused on LBJ, she expresses concern over a “surprising absence” of information about two Texans who could be found within “the hidden nooks and crannies of Lyndon Johnson’s life in the shadows.” >>READ MORE
POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT
Robert Brescia
with foreword by Jeanine Pirro
Destination Greatness: Creating a New Americanism
Infinity Publishing
Politics and Social Sciences/Civics and Citizenship
978-1495812385 paperback, $15.95; also available as Kindle ebook, 248 pages; October 11, 2016
It is too late to drag the 2016 election out of its deep, dispiriting mud pit. But Robert Brescia’s Destination Greatness: Creating a New Americanism likely will rank high on many reading lists once citizens and leaders begin searching again for ways to bring civility and sanity back to the national political scene. >>READ MORE
Jean Edward Smith
Simon & Schuster
Hardcover, 978-1-4767-4119-2, 832 pages,
(ebook and audio book also available), July 5, 2016
Noted historian and biographer Jean Edward Smith tackles two politically charged questions—and much more—in this important, heavily researched life story of Texas’s forty-sixth governor and America’s forty-third president, George W. Bush.
The questions are: Was Bush “the worst president in American history,” as many partisans and pundits have charged? And, was Bush’s 2003 “decision to invade Iraq…the worst foreign policy decision ever made by an American president”?
In any presidency, it can be argued, good, bad, and sometimes very bad decisions are made in the Oval Office. Many Bush detractors have labeled the forty-third president a “yes man” for Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and others. Smith, however, makes a strong case that President George W. Bush actually was, in most cases, “the Decider” he claimed to be. >>READ MORE
Texas ReadsGlenn Dromgoole
>> archive
Two of the hottest Texas books of the year
Two of the most talked-about Texas books this fall are Paulette Jiles’s novel News of the World, and the story of the popular couple on HGTV, Chip and Joanna Gaines from Waco. Both books were featured prominently in the October issue of Texas Monthly.
The “Fixer Upper” TV stars have written The Magnolia Story (Thomas Nelson, $26.99 hardcover) about how they met, their early years struggling to remodel and flip houses, their business successes and challenges, and of course their new life in the spotlight — all while trying to keep up with their four kids.
If you’ve seen Chip and Joanna on TV, they write pretty much like they talk (with the help of co-author Mark Dagostino).
The book is like sitting in on a long conversation with them. First, Joanna starts telling a story (in one font), and then Chip chips in his thoughts (in a different font), or vice versa, and so the story flows seamlessly back and forth throughout the 190 or so pages.
The Magnolia Story is a nice, easy, fun, insightful and inspiring read, and one that will no doubt be gift-wrapped under quite a few Christmas trees.
News of the World by Paulette Jiles of Utopia (William Morrow, $22.99 hardcover) has been named a finalist for the National Book Award.
The 200-page historical novel is set in Texas in 1870 and involves a seventy-year-old veteran of two wars who makes his living traveling around the country and reading news accounts from various newspapers. Of course, the news isn’t exactly new, but folks out west have a hunger to hear about what’s going on in the world.
After a reading performance in Wichita Falls, Capt. Jefferson Kyle Kidd is asked by Britt Johnson (a legendary frontier character featured in another of Jiles’s novels, The Color of Lightning) to take a ten-year-old girl, who was kidnapped by the Kiowa four years ago, back to her aunt and uncle’s home near San Antonio.
A big problem is the girl, having lived with the Kiowa for four years, has forgotten almost everything from her first six years, including the English language and what passes for civilized behavior in her new surroundings. Kidd is reluctant but feels it is the right thing to do, so he and Joanna set off on the journey, quite against her will. Along the way, they forge a relationship as they confront life-and-death situations.
Glenn Dromgoole’s latest book is West Texas StoriesContact him at g.dromgoole@suddenlink.net.
>> Check out his previous Texas Reads columns in Lone Star Literary Life
Laura Bush, Jenna Bush Hager open 2016 Texas Book Festival to enthusiastic crowds
CLICK TO VIEW MORE TEXAS BOOK FESTIVAL ’16 MOMENTS
Jenna Hager Bush (below, left) and her mother, former first lady Laura Bush (center), read from their children’s book, Our Great Big Backyard, and answered questions posed by moderator Dorothy Guerrero. The coauthors signed books for Friends of the Texas Book Festival afterward. Photo by Bob Daemmrich, courtesy of the Texas Book Festival.
Saturday morning, thousands of bookfans defied the drizzle in downtown Austin to listen to and visit with their favorite authors and snag prized signed copies of books. More than 290 authors are featured at dozens of venues in and around the state capitol the weekend of Nov. 5 and 6, 2016, and events continue through 5:00 pm Sunday. >>READ MORE
LONE STAR LISTENS interviews >> archive
Kay Ellington, Editor and Publisher
11.6.2016 National Book Award finalist Paulette Jiles shares news of her world
Paulette Jiles is a novelist, poet, and memoirist. Her most recent book, News of the World, is a finalist for the National Book Award. The week before the Texas Book Festival, she took time out of her busy schedule to be interviewed by LSLL by email.
LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE: Paulette, your new book is so full of details about Texas history that everyone assumes you are a Texan. But you’re a “come-here,” not a “from here.” Where did you grow up, and how did you come to Texas?
PAULETTE JILES: I’m from the Missouri Ozarks — all my people are country/farm/hills people, and I came to Texas because I married a Texan.
True Texas history and fiction aficionados will savor News of the World, but can you tell our readers in your own words, what your book is about?
News of the World is about an elderly gentleman who travels North Texas giving readings from newspapers to audiences in small towns. He reads from journals from distant places and along with ‘news’ he imparts a sense of the far world, things which seems almost imaginary. He is asked by a black frontiersman, Britt Johnson, to return a little captive girl who has been rescued to her people four hundred miles to the south. Captain Kidd says yes, and the two have many improbably and even dangerous adventures on the way south. >>READ MORE
Texas’s only statewide, weekly calendar of book events
Bookish Texas event highlights 11.6.2016
>> GO this week Michelle Newby, Contributing Editor
News Briefs 11.6.16
Texas State Library and Archive hosts Author Summit, presents first annual literacy award to Midland Need to Read
Above: Texas State Library and Archive director Mark Smith (center) and Center for the Book coordinator Rebekah Manley (left) present a $1,000 award to the Midland Need to Read adult literacy program. Accepting the award was Jessica Smith (right).
AUSTIN — The Texas Center for the Book moved from its longtime home in Dallas to the Texas State Library and Archives last year, and TSLAC has wasted no time creating new programs highlighting its role in supporting literacy and libraries statewide, and providing a rich resource for working authors in addition to its missions of document and artifact preservation for scholarship and posterity.
As a kickoff event for Texas Book Festival week, TSLAC hosted a Texas Authors Summit on the evening of Nov. 3. >>READ MORE
Art House Dallas, Deep Vellum Team Up for Writers’ Workshop Nov. 12
DALLAS — Art House Dallas will host a Writer’s Workshop Sat., Nov. 12 at Deep Vellum Bookstore to provide an encouraging environment in a small group setting to explore strengths and potential areas of growth for writers. Speakers Andi Ashworth and Allison Fallon will be providing guidance, knowledge and encouragement during the workshop.
Andi Ashworth and her husband, Charlie Peacock, are co-founders/directors emeriti of Art House America. >>READ MORE
McAllen Book Festival slated for Nov. 12
McALLEN — The third annual McAllen Book Festival, a celebration of culture and imagination linking readers of all ages with authors, performers, and publishers, will be held at the main branch of the McAllen Public Library, 4001 N. 23rd Street Sat., Nov. 12, from 10 am to 5 pm. >>READ MORE
Lone Star Lit editor’s favorite bookish destinations featured in Texas Highways November issue
Follow LSLL editor and publisher Kay Ellington’s literary journey across Texas, with images by Texas Highways photographers: read the article at texashighways.com/travel/item/8316-texas-bookish-destinations. And then email us at info@LoneStarLiterary.com to tell us about your best picks and hidden treasures!
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NOW ON TOUR: FOR KIDS
THE ISLAND OF LOST CHILDREN
by Kim Batchelor
Visit with Kim November 7–16
11/7 Excerpt 1 Hall Ways Blog
11/8 Review Syd Savvy
11/9 Author Interview #1 It’s a Jenn World
11/10 Guest Post Country Girl Bookaholic
11/11 Review Missus Gonzo
11/12 Excerpt 2 Kara The Redhead
11/13 Review The Page Unbound
11/14 Author Interview 2 Margie’s Must Reads
11/15 Excerpt 3 Forgotten Winds
11/16 Review Blogging for the Love of Authors and Their Books
COMING UP ON TOUR: NONFICTION
Champion of the Barrio: The Legacy of Coach Buryl Baty by R. Gaines Baty
Visit with Gaines November 10–19
11/10 Scrapbook StoreyBook Reviews
11/11 Author Interview Forgotten Winds
11/12 Review Margie’s Must Reads
11/13 promo Blogging for the Love of Authors and Their Books
11/14 Review It’s a Jenn World
11/15 Audio Interview Syd Savvy
11/16 Excerpt The Page Unbound
11/17 Review Momma On The Rocks
11/18 Author Interview Reading By Moonlight
11/19 Review Hall Ways Blog
CONTINUING ON TOUR: FICTION
The Fisher King: A Jack McBride Mystery
by Melissa Lenhardt
Visit with Melissa through November 10
11/6 Guest Post 2 The Page Unbound
11/7 Scrapbook Forgotten Winds
11/8 Review Country Girl Bookaholic
11/9 Promo The Crazy Booksellers
11/10 Review Reading By Moonlight
CONTINUING ON TOUR: FICTION
Where Two Hearts Meet by Liz Johnson
Visit with the authors through November 10
11/6 Author Interview 2 Reading By Moonlight
11/7 Review Kara The Redhead
11/8 Guest Post A Novel Reality
11/9 Author Interview 3 Margie’s Must Reads
11/10 Review The Page Unbound
RECENTLY ON TOUR: FICTION
Legend of the Forest Beast: Sir Kaye the Boy Knight, Book 3 by Don M. Winn
RECENTLY ON TOUR: NONFICTION
Pigskin Rapture by Mac Engel with photography by Dan Jenkins
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