Texas Reads>> archiveGlenn Dromgoole

12.11.16    A coffee table book for history lovers

The Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum presents an up-close look at 81 of its artifacts in a full-color coffee-table book, Seeing Texas History (University of Texas Press, $40 hardcover). The artifact photographs are arranged chronologically, beginning with an ancient tool made from a rabbit jaw and continuing through cultural and historical items from modern-day Texas. Each picture is accompanied by a short text block.

Just a few examples: Davy Crockett’s violin; the U.S. flag with twenty-eight stars; a saddle owned by Pancho Villa; Tom Landry’s trading card from his football playing days; the Civil Rights Act signed by LBJ in 1968; and the Congressional Medal of Honor  presented to Roy Benavidez in 1981.

If you’re looking for a gift for that history buff on your list, Seeing Texas History would be a nice one.

Simone’s story: Simone Biles, the diminutive Texas gymnast who captured millions of hearts while winning four gold medals in last summer’s Olympics, tells her story in Courage to Soar: A Body in Motion, A Life in Balance (Zondervan, $24.99 hardcover, with co-author Michelle Burford).

“You might think that going from a girl in foster care to being an Olympic gold medalist in Rio de Janeiro is the most amazing part of my journey,” Biles writes. “It isn’t. It’s how I got there — or more accurately, who got me there — that is most miraculous.” Her story, she continues, is about “how my faith and my family made my wildest dreams come true.” She said she hopes her experiences can help others embrace their dreams and find the “courage to soar.”

Murals: Texas A&M University Press has published a flexbound edition of The Texas Post Office Murals: Art for the People by Philip Parisi ($29.95).

The colorful volume, issued in hardcover for $50 in 2004, describes the 106 works of art created for 69 post offices and federal buildings in Texas during the Depression. Many are still in good condition. The murals depicted colorful scenes and subject matter that people could relate to. A good many of the Texas scenes, for example, feature cattle, buffalo, horses, and Indians. The murals are listed and pictured alphabetically by city.

Body and spirit: Dr. Martha Hinman, a professor at Hardin-Simmons University, combines her scientific knowledge of anatomy and her Christian faith to produce a very readable collection of short two-to-three-page essays reflecting on God’s “amazing” creativity. Each of the fifty-two chapters or devotional essays incorporates the word “amazing” into its title -— as in Amazing Heredity, Amazing Agility (on David vs. Goliath), Amazing Flexibility, Amazing Productivity, Amazing Tranquility, and Amazing Purity. Amazing Grays ($16.99 paperback) is scientifically instructive and biblically inspirational.

Glenn Dromgoole’s latest book is West Texas StoriesContact him at g.dromgoole@suddenlink.net.

>> Read his past Texas Reads columns in Lone Star Literary Life here.