Lone Star ReviewsMichelle Newby, NBCC,

Contributing Editor

HISTORICAL FICTION

Bill Wittliff, illustrated by Joe Ciardiello

The Devil’s Sinkhole

University of Texas Press

Hardcover, 978-1477309742, 214 pgs., $29.95 (also available as an e-book), October 4, 2016

Reviewed by François Pointeau

The Devil’s Sinkhole is a real place in Texas, a National Natural Landmark that houses one of the state’s largest colonies of Mexican free-tailed bats. You can visit if you call the Devil’s Sinkhole Society to make reservations. It’s also a very important part of Bill Wittliff’s novel by the same name. I can’t tell you why. You’ll have to read the novel for that. However, like the first novel in the series, The Devil’s Backbone, the story revolves around real landmarks in and around the Texas Hill Country. In a way, it is an imagined travel memoir of life in Central Texas in the late 1800s, and it’s breathtaking.

The Devil’s Sinkhole is not an easy read. The writing is highly stylized. That said, it is worth your time and effort. Let me repeat: It is worth your time and effort. >>READ MORE

Texas ReadsGlenn Dromgoole

>> archive

Couple produces readable, colorful book on Texas birds

Author/professor Gary Clark has teamed up with his wife, photographer Kathy Clark, to produce the very readable and colorful Book of Texas Birds (Texas A&M University Press, $39.95 flexbound). The 512-page book is thorough, fun to read, and richly illustrated with hundreds of color photos.

Clark said he set out to write the book as “a personal account of Texas birds,” with the first draft being basically off the top of his head. (Technical corrections and additions based on source material would come later.) And that’s how it reads, written informally and conversationally, like a friend telling another friend about the interesting birds he has observed, with a color picture of each one.

A few examples:

“Mountain bluebirds always look to me as if they were born from some sky god because of their unmatchable sky-blue color.”
“As a college professor, I’m rather partial to the ovenbird because the male’s song resembles the words teacher-teacher-teacher.”
“I brake for red-headed woodpeckers. I don’t see them as often as I did when I was a boy, so I brake to make sure I get a good look at these uncommon birds with uncommonly handsome plumage.”
“Let’s say you wanted to watch parrots in the wild instead of parrots in a cage. Where would you go? Mexico? No, you’d never have to leave Texas.”
“I doubt any human singer can match a mockingbird’s vocal endurance or its repertoire of songs.”

In addition to a one-page or so personal essay on each species, Clark provides factual details about what it eats, how it sounds, and where it can be found in Texas. Book of Texas Birds should be especially interesting to serious birders, but even the most casual observer of birds will find much to enjoy in the Clarks’s delightful volume.

Chocolate gravy: Have you ever had chocolate gravy? I’ve never heard of it, or hadn’t until I perused a cookbook by Linda Ponder of Bryan, formerly of Ballinger.

“I’ve never met another person outside our family who eats chocolate gravy,” Ponder writes in Aunt Linda’s Lovin’ Oven. “It is a breakfast dish, made in the cast iron skillet and served spooned over leftover hot rolls, biscuits or toast or just plain white bread.”

Ponder includes that recipe with other favorites such as ham and sweet potato breakfast pie, Italian chicken salad, old-fashioned beef stew, and Nanny’s skillet cookies. For more information about where to purchase the cookbook ($10 spiral-bound), e-mail the author at AuntLindaCooks@gmail.com.

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

Pulpwood Queen’s Girlfriend Weekend slated for Jan. 12–15 in Nacogdoches

The annual Pulpwood Queen’s Girlfriend Weekendreturns to Nacogdoches January 12–15, 2017, with the theme “Diamonds Are a Gir;s Best Friend.” >>READ MORE

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LONE STAR LISTENS interviews >> archive

Kay Ellington, Editor and Publisher

1.8.2017 Gielan and Blankson help readers broadcast happiness: exhibiting gratitude, following “transformative journalism,” more

Texas-based Ben Bella books has long been a leading national publisher in titles that transform lives, such as Beyond Venus and Mars by John Gray. So we asked them to recommend authors with books that might offer up insights for the new year. They suggested Michelle Gielan and Amy Blankson, authors who have made a science out of how to be happy. We interviewed both authors by email with an eye on how to make the most of a fresh start in a new year.

LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE: Amy and Michelle, thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to be interviewed by Lone Star Literary Life. Can you tell us a little bit about what part of Texas you live in, and/or your connection to the state?

MICHELLE GIELAN: I currently live in Dallas with my husband and fellow happiness researcher Shawn Achor and our son Leo; Amy also lives in the Dallas area. We love Texas and all it has to offer and a lot of our friends and family are here and we are so grateful for this!

Can you each tell us a little about yourselves, and your latest books, both which seem very timely?

Michelle Gielan, national CBS News anchor turned positive psychology researcher, is the best-selling author of Broadcasting Happiness. Broadcasting Happiness showcases how real individuals and organizations have used these techniques to achieve results that include increasing revenues by hundreds of millions of dollars, raising a school district’s graduation rate by 45%, and shifting family gatherings from toxic to thriving.

Changing your broadcast can change your life, your success, and the lives of others around you. >>READ MORE

Texas’s only statewide, weekly calendar of book events

Bookish Texas event highlights 1.8.2017
>> GO this week Michelle Newby, Contributing Editor

SPECIAL EVENTS THIS WEEK: Nacogdoches, Austin, North Richland HillsDALLAS Mon., Jan. 9 Lucky Dog Books – Oak Cliff, The Writer’s Garret presents Soup’s On! Stone Soup Showcase, 7PMCEDAR HILL Tues., Jan. 10 Zula Bryant Wylie Library, Dallas Area Writers Group meeting featuring author Arianne “Tex” Thompson, 7PMDALLAS Tues., Jan. 10 Highland Park United Methodist Church, Author’s LIVE! series: Conversation with Stephen Harrigan, Lawrence Wright, H.W. Brands, and S.C. Gwynne, 7PMSAN ANTONIO Tues., Jan. 10 San Antonio Public Library – Central, Launch of the Mayor’s Book Club: Jan Jarboe Russell discusses The Train to Crystal City, 10:30AMDENTON Wed., Jan. 11, Denton South Branch Library, Professor’s Corner: A Literary Discussion Group: Poems by Texas Poet Laureate James Hoggard, 7PMAUSTIN Thurs., Jan. 12, Central Presbyterian Church, Bestselling Author ZADIE SMITH speaking & signing Swing Time (with the Texas Book Festival), 7PM [TICKET REQUIRED]ALSO SIGNING HOUSTON Fri., Jan. 13 St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, Zadie Smith reads and signs Swing Time (in conversation with Mat Johnson), 7PM [TICKET REQUIRED]ALSO SIGNING DALLAS Sat., Jan. 14 Dallas Museum of Art, Arts & Letters Live presents Zadie Smith (in her first visit to Dallas) discussing, reading, and signing Swing Time, 7:30PMHOUSTON Sat., Jan. 14, Blue Willow Bookshop, Poets read from and sign the UNTAMEABLE CITY: POEMS ON THE NATURE OF HOUSTON anthology, 3PMAUSTIN, DALLAS, EL PASO, HOUSTON, SAN ANTONIO Sun., Jan. 15, #WritersResist events

News Briefs 1.8.17

Texas Book Festival announces dates for 2017 weekend; submissions open Jan. 9

AUSTIN — The Texas Book Festival says its 2016 Festival Weekend was one of the most successful on record, with 50,000 attendees coming together on November 5 and 6 in the largest celebration of books and literacy in the Festival’s history. The Festival will return for its 22nd year on November 4 and 5, 2017, and will once again be held in and around the Texas State Capitol in downtown Austin. >>READ MORE

Writers Resist events slated for Jan. 15, 2017, grow to five Texas cities: Austin, Dallas, El Paso, Houston, San Antonio

Writers Resist, a literary collective born of the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election that publishes creative expressions of resistance by diverse writers and artists, has prompted the grass-roots organization of events around the nation, including those organized in Austin, Houston, And San Antonio for Sun., Jan. 15. >>READ MORE

Lone Star Literary Life’s GO Calendar updated with 2017 annual event dates

As soon as organizers return to their desks after the start of each new year, annual book events start populating their Facebook pages and Twitter feeds with dates readers and writers are eager to mark on their own calendars.

We’ve saved you some of the work — compiling a list of key recurring events in the state by month, along with locations and precise dates as soon as we learn them. This week alone, we’ve added and updated more than a dozen. Check them out at LoneStarLiterary.com/Go, and bookmark the calendar for use in planning your travel, book promotions, and visits to more than 100 readings and events each week, statewide.

Chelsea Clinton slated as 2017 TLA Annual Conference closing speaker

The Texas Library Association (TLA) will welcome Chelsea Clinton to the 2017 TLA Annual Conference in San Antonio, Texas. Clinton will deliver the closing General Session at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center on Saturday, April 22, 1:30–2:10 p.m.

Author of 50 Simple Things Kids Can Do to Save the Earth, Clinton will share stories about inspirational young people who are making a difference in the world today and talk about her own lifelong activism. Clinton will also answer questions by Sam Houston State University assistant professor Rose Brock and will discuss ways to help children become informed, inspired global citizens. >>READ MORE

Voting open to grades 3–6 statewide for Texas Bluebonnet Awards through Jan. 31; Midland added as new voting site, hosts Bluebonnet Brunch Jan. 28

Let the reading and voting begin! Voting is open once again for the Texas Bluebonnet Awards, a unique program that encourages reading for pleasure and is aimed at students in grades 3 through 6.

Each year, 20 books are chosen as the “Texas Bluebonnet Award Master List” by the TBA selection committee. If students read a minimum of five books from the current master list (or have the books read aloud to them), they have the opportunity to vote for their favorite title during the month of January each year. The author of the book receiving the most votes statewide is declared the winner of the Texas Bluebonnet Award. >>READ MORE