TEXAS BOOK FESTIVAL 2016 WRAPUP, 11.6.16

History of Texas Highway Department, memoir by Waylon Jennings’s son, and much more close out 2016 Texas Book Festival

Despite off-and-on rain showers, thousands of bookfans lined up for panels in and around the capitol building on Sunday — many arriving early to clinch prime seats. Sessions with novelists like Robert Olen Butler, YA idols, musicians, children’s authors and illustrators, poets, and more drew standing-room only audiences. (The 11:00 a.m. panel, above, on the hundred-year history of the Texas Highway Department, attracted roadgeeks, history buffs, and Department of Transportation staffers alike.)

In a post-Festival email to followers, TBF organizers wrote, “Whether you are a reader, an author, a moderator, an exhibitor, or a volunteer, or any combination of the above, we couldn’t make this happen with you. Thank you, and we’ll see you at the 2017 Festival!” The Festival invites friends to revisit favorite sessions, authors, and moments of the 2016 Festival through TBF’s Facebook photo album. In the meantime, here are a few of our own pix to enjoy!

Above, from left: Radio host Dallas Wayne (left) talked with Terry Jennings about Waylon: Tales of My Outlaw Dad;Texas Monthly’sLauren Smith Ford (left) moderated a session with photographer Ryann Ford on her multi-year adventures chronicling the vanishing American highway rest stop (and yes, that’s Bevo in the projected photo, far right); Miles and Miles of Texas,featuring authors Carol Dawson (center) and Roger Polson (left) with TxDOT director James Bass (right).Photos by Barbara Brannon/Lone Star Literary Life, except where otherwise noted.

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Bookstore comings and goings, fall 2016

Across the state and nation this season, book and music fans in many mid-sized cities are mourning the closure of the Hastings Entertainment and Music chain. All 126 stores were shuttered by October 31, 2016—with thirty-two of those in Texas cities from Abilene to Victoria, Borger to Waco. “The closure of Hastings means the end of a retailer that was, at one point, handling roughly $100 million in book sales,” reported Publishers Weekly on July 21. The team of Hilco Merchant Resources and Gordon Brothers won the bid for the company’s assets.

Farewell to Ruby Lane

Earlier this fall, longtime indie favorite Ruby Lane Books of Post closed up shop. Proprietor and author Rosa Latimer plans to remain in Post, concentrating on her own writing projects. (Bookstore cat Ruby, for those who are concerned, is doing fine in retirement as well.)

We’re always sad to see any of our favorite bricks-and-mortar bookstores close. But Texas readers needn’t despair: the Lone Star State still boasts more than 300 chain and independent stores (check out Lone Star Lit’s directory here).

Fleur Fine Books, Port Neches, to feature Lansdale Nov. 19

And this month also brings welcome word of a grand opening event for another newcomer on the scene. Fleur Fine Books will celebrate its launch on Sat., Nov. 19, in Port Neches, with a special author signing event featuring Joe R. Lansdale (below), author of more than forty novels as well as numerous short stories.

Owners Dale and Christie Lafleur describe the launch of their store as a step along a twenty-year journey. When the Lafleurs were expecting their first child back then, Christie told Dale that his book collection would need to go to make room for the baby. Dale instead bought an entire bookstore, Read-em-Again Books in Port Neches. Over the years the store grew to over 100,000 volumes before Hurricane Rita damaged the building and destroyed its inventory.

Earlier this year Dale informed reader and collector friend Rick Beaulieu that he was ready to start a bookstore again. Fleur Fine Books opened its doors Aug. 15, 2016, with a stock of more than 15,000 new and used titles (including signed editions), a bounty that’s grown to 23,000 already. The proprietors feature a portion of their list at www.fleurfinebooks.com and will be happy to handle searches and special orders.

Photos of the store’s progress can be viewed on its Facebook timeline: www.facebook.com/FleurFineBooks.

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Texas Library Association announces 2017–1018 Texas Bluebonnet Award Master List

AUSTIN – Children’s authors Jon Scieszka and Steven Weinberg joined students from the central Texas area in announcing the 2017–2018 Texas Bluebonnet Award (TBA) Master List on November 5 at the 2016 Texas Book Festival. The TBA Master List is considered one of the most prestigious children’s literature lists in the country. Every year, over 100,000 children in grades 3 through 6 vote on their favorite book from a list of twenty titles curated by librarians around the state who serve on the TBA Committee.

Students, teachers, librarians, and booksellers statewide eagerly await the yearly release of a new master list. “The books on the list are chosen to enable the readers of Texas to identify with at least one of the stories, whether it is through authorship, plot, or characters,” says TBA coordinator Sharon Lawler. “With several genres represented, we feel there is something for everyone.” The 2017-2018 titles are:

• Ada’s Violin by Susan Hood, illustrated by Sally Wern Comport (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)

• The Best Man by Richard Peck (Penguin/Dial)

• Follow the Moon Home: A Tale of One Idea, Twenty Kids, and a Hundred Sea Turtles by Philippe Cousteau and Deborah Hopkinson, illustrated by Meilo So (Chronicle)

• The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill (Algonquin Young Readers/Workman Publishing)

• The Great Pet Escape (Pets on the Loose) by Victoria Jamieson (Macmillan/Henry Holt)

• The Great Shelby Holmes by Elizabeth Eulberg (Bloomsbury)

• In the Footsteps of Crazy Horse by Joseph Marshall, illustrated by James Mark Yellowhawk (Amulet Books, an imprint of ABRAMS)

• The Key to Extraordinary by Natalie Lloyd (Scholastic Inc.)

• The Last Kids on Earth by Max Braillier, illustrated by Douglas Holgate (Penguin/Viking)

• Little Cat’s Luck by Marion Dane Bauer, illustrated by Jennifer A. Bell (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)

• Lola Levine: Drama Queen by Monica Brown, illustrated by Angela Dominguez (Little, Brown)

• The Magnificent Mya Tibbs: Spirit Week Showdown by Crystal Allen (HarperCollins/Balzer & Bray)

• Maybe a Fox by Kathi Appelt and Allison McGhee (Simon & Schuster/Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books)

• The Princess and the Warrior by Duncan Tonatiuh (Amulet Books, an imprint of ABRAMS)

• by Joan Bauer (Penguin/Viking)

• Some Kind of Courage by Dan Gemeinhart (Scholastic Inc.)

• The Storyteller by Evan Turk (Simon & Schuster/Atheneum)

• Towers Falling by Jewell Parker Rhodes (Little, Brown)

• Unidentified Suburban Objects by Mike Jung (Scholastic Inc.)

• Whoosh! Lonnie Johnson’s Super-Soaking Stream of Inventions by Chris Barton, illustrated by Don Tate (Charlesbridge)

The goal of the TBA program is to encourage reading for pleasure. The titles are chosen for both quality and appeal to children. In order to vote, children must read at least five of the titles on the list. Reading the entire list is not required as the titles are chosen to be appropriate for a wide age range. In January each year, students vote for their favorite of the 20 titles on the list, thus using critical thinking skills in selecting their choice. The winner will be announced in February 2017 and the award will be presented at the 2017 Texas Library Association (TLA) Annual Conference in San Antonio in April.

The TBA reading program is one of several developed by the TLA for readers of all ages. For more information about these lists, including book titles, visit: txla.org/reading-lists.

(From organization’s press release)