Contributing Editor
SPORTS/BASEBALL/AMERICAN HISTORY
Robert C. Trumpbour and Kenneth Womack
The Eighth Wonder of the World: The Life of Houston Iconic Astrodome
University of Nebraska Press
Hardcover, 978-0-8032-5545-6, 272 pages, $27.95; also available as e-book; 2016
When it opened in April, 1965, Houston’s Astrodome was “the world’s first indoor, air-conditioned, all-weather sports stadium.” But more than that, Robert C. Trumpbour and Kenneth Womack write, the stunning structure—quickly nicknamed “the Eighth Wonder of the World — “was a unique place just to be inside, just to watch whatever was going on.” In their well-written and entertaining history of the Astrodome, they quote comedian Bob Hope as observing: “If they had a maternity ward and a cemetery, you’d never have to leave.” >>READ MORE
Texas ReadsGlenn Dromgoole
>> archive
Former president
finds a new passion
in painting
Former President George W. Bush’s Portraits of Courage is subtitled “A Commander in Chief’s Tribute to America’s Warriors,” and that accurately sums up his impressive new book (Crown, $35 hardcover).
In color paintings and personal essays, Bush offers a close-up look at ninety-eight men and women who have served in the armed forces since Sept. 11, 2001.
“I painted these men and women as a way to honor their service to the country and to show my respect for their sacrifice and courage,” Bush writes. “I hope to draw attention to the challenges some face when they come home and transition to civilian life — and the need for our country to better address them.”
Bush’s introduction, “Painting as a Passion,” tells how he took up painting in 2012 because he wanted a new adventure in his life — “within the confines of the post-presidential bubble.”
He told his wife, Laura, and an artist friend that he might like to take up painting.
“They were surprised,” he said. “I had been an art-agnostic all my life.”
Or, as Laura puts it in her foreword to the book: “When George and I married, if someone told me that he would become President, I would have thought, ‘Well, maybe.’ He was running for Congress at the time, and we loved politics. But if someone said, ‘One day you will be writing a foreword for a book that includes George’s paintings,’ I would have said, ‘No way.’”
In the four years since he took up painting, Bush has indeed shown a passion for it, as this remarkable collection proves.
Sixty-six service men and women are profiled with a full-page painting and a one- or two-page essay.
Between pages 96 and 97 is a four-page, four-panel color mural that folds out. Thirty-five men and women are included in the mural. Three of them are also among the 66 individuals profiled, bringing the total to 98. The stories of the other 32 in the mural are told briefly at the back of the book.
“I’m not sure how the art in this volume will hold up to critical eyes,” Bush writes. “After all, I am a novice. What I am sure of is that each painting was done with a lot of care and respect.”
Portraits of Courage is the third book by Bush since he left the presidency in 2008, following his memoir, Decision Points, and the very personal biography, 41: A Portrait of My Father.
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
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Bloomsbury USA
Hardcover, 978-1-6328-6314-6, (also available as an e-book and on Audible), 448 pgs., $33.00
February 28, 2017
“Human rights apply equally to Soviet dissidents, Chilean peasants and American women.” —Barbara Jordan
Gloria Steinem refers to the National Women’s Conference, held November 18-21, 1977, in Houston, Texas, as “the most important event nobody knows about.” Twenty thousand women attended the conference. These delegates were Democrats and Republicans, ranging from students to housewives to the presidents of national groups such as the League of Women Voters, the National Federation of Business and Professional Women, and the National Organization for Women. The star-studded cast included Bella Abzug, Margaret Mead, Betty Friedan, Texas’s Barbara Jordan, Maya Angelou, Jean Stapleton (aka Edith Bunker of All in the Family), Coretta Scott King, and three first ladies of the United States. >>READ MORE
Clarion Books
Hardcover, 978-0-5445-8650-5, (also available as an e-book, an audio book, and on Audible), 464 pgs., $17.99
March 7, 2017
“just because my love isn’t perfect doesn’t mean I don’t love you”
Seventeen-year-old Salvador “Sally” Silva likes his life. What he doesn’t like is change. Beginning his senior year at El Paso High School, Sally has a great relationship with Vicente, his adoptive father; a steadfast best friend of many years, Samantha “Sammy” Diaz; and a loving extended family of aunts, uncles, cousins, and his grandmother Mima. But when Sally, an easygoing guy with “a control thing over [himself]” who prefers “keeping it calm,” gets into a fistfight on the first day of school, he begins to wonder about his “bio father” for the first time, and doubting that he really knows himself at all. “Maybe the kind of guy I was was like someone I didn’t know,” Sally thinks. “You know, the guy I’d never met whose genes I had.” Then Sally’s Mima gets sick, his father’s former boyfriend returns, and his friends’ lives are turned upside down, forcing Sally to confront impending adulthood and question what it means to be a man. >>READ MORE
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