{"id":1158,"date":"2018-12-31T15:57:35","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T15:57:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=1158"},"modified":"2018-12-31T15:57:35","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T15:57:35","slug":"lone-star-reviewsmichelle-newby-nbcc-91","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=1158","title":{"rendered":"Lone Star ReviewsMichelle Newby, NBCC,"},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/span><\/span>Lone Star Reviews<\/span>Michelle Newby, NBCC,<\/span><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n

Contributing Editor<\/span><\/h1>\n
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12.3.17<\/span>FICTION<\/p>\n

Clark Hays and Kathleen McFall<\/span><\/p>\n

Bonnie and Clyde: Resurrection Road<\/span><\/p>\n

Pumpjack Press<\/p>\n

Paperback, 978-0997411331 (also available as ebook), 308 pages, $15.95; April 2017<\/p>\n

This new take on the 1934 deaths of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow<\/span> is a fast-moving action-thriller rich with mystery, socio-political commentary, and lingering questions that set up a path for a possible sequel.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat if?\u201d is one of mankind\u2019s oldest ways to launch a story. Yet, certain aspects of Bonnie and Clyde: Resurrection Road<\/span> fit right into today\u2019s contentious news headlines.<\/p>\n

What if Bonnie and Clyde had been killed by Texas and Louisiana lawmen in that infamous ambush that left two bodies riddled with rifle, pistol and machine gun bullets, plus shotgun pellets? What if they had been pulled out of their car before the ambush, gassed into unconsciousness and replaced by a pair of lookalikes who had no idea they were about to die a couple of minutes later and be buried as \u201cBonnie\u201d and \u201cClyde\u201d?\u00a0\u00a0 >>READ MORE<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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<\/span><\/span><\/span>Texas Reads<\/span>Glenn Dromgoole<\/span><\/h1>\n

>> archive<\/a><\/span><\/h1>\n

\u00a0Texas weather: Read all about it<\/h1>\n

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Weather in Texas: The Essential Handbook<\/span> by veteran Texas meteorologist George W. Bomar<\/span> (University of Texas Press, $24.95 paperback) is essentially an updated third edition of Bomar\u2019s Texas Weather,<\/span> first published in 1983.<\/p>\n

Bomar provides scientific and practical information about Texas weather, including what to do when a tornado threatens, depending on whether you are at home, at school, in a high-rise building, a mobile home, a hospital, a shopping mall, a vehicle, or outdoors.<\/p>\n

The thirty-page appendix section is full of interesting statistical data statewide and city by city. For example, the coldest temperature ever observed in Abilene was minus 9 degrees on Jan. 4, 1947. The coldest in Laredo: (plus) 16 degrees, Dec. 21, 1973. Lubbock: minus 17, Feb. 8, 1933. Dalhart: minus 21, Jan. 4, 1959.<\/p>\n

Abilene\u2019s hottest? 111, Aug. 3, 1943. Lubbock, 114, June 27, 1994. Childress, Presidio, Wichita Falls and Wink topped out at 117.<\/p>\n

Remember how hot it was in the spring and summer of 2011? That year Abilene had a record 81 100-degree days, San Angelo and Wichita Falls 100, and Laredo a scorching 145 100-degree days. Of course, some of the statistical records, especially related to rainfall, probably became outdated because of Hurricane Harvey while Weather in Texas<\/span> was at the printer.<\/p>\n

\u201cFew subjects evoke as many tall tales and jokes as the weather,\u201d writes Bomar, \u201cespecially the varieties that legitimize Texas as one of the more interesting places on Earth to visit \u2014 or live.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few years ago I penned a poem about Texas weather, and it seems an appropriate time to share it:<\/p>\n

Texas Weather (It Could Be Verse)<\/span><\/p>\n

Heavy rains are predicted in Beaumont, of course. Snow flurries are likely<\/p>\n

at Amarillo and Morse.<\/p>\n

Watch out for tornadoes around Wichita Falls. To beat the heat in Dallas,<\/p>\n

hang out in the malls.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re fryin\u2019 in Bryan, it\u2019s clear in the east. There are blizzards in Winters<\/p>\n

(until noon at least).<\/p>\n

A norther is blowing from Lubbock to Post. There\u2019s a hurricane watch<\/p>\n

on the Texas Gulf Coast.<\/p>\n

Drought conditions continue around Abilene. The Hill Country\u2019s having<\/p>\n

the worst flooding they\u2019ve seen.<\/p>\n

After scanning the radar, I think you could say: for Texas weather it\u2019s just<\/p>\n

a typical day.<\/p>\n

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Mucho queso:<\/span> A whole cookbook devoted to chile con queso? Seriously? Yep.<\/p>\n

Lisa Fain, best known for The Homesick Texan<\/span> cookbook, turns her culinary attention to queso in Queso! Regional Recipes for the World\u2019s Favorite Chile-Cheese Dip<\/span><\/a><\/span> (Ten Speed Press, $15 hardcover). The book includes more than fifty recipes, including Chicken Fried Steak with Queso Gravy, Austin-Style Vegan Queso, West Texas Green Chile Queso Blanco, and Gulf Coast Crab Queso.<\/p>\n

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Glenn Dromgoole\u2019s<\/span> latest book is West Texas Stories<\/span><\/a><\/span>Contact him at g.dromgoole@suddenlink.net.<\/p>\n

>> <\/span>Check out his previous Texas Reads columns in Lone Star Lit<\/a><\/span>erary Life<\/span><\/h1>\n

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LONE STAR LISTENS interviews\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>>> archive<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/h1>\n

Author interviews by Kay Ellington<\/span><\/h1>\n

12.10.2017\u00a0 Sophie Jordan<\/a><\/span>\u2019s versatile talents span genres and generations<\/h1>\n

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Houston author Sophie Jordan has published more than thirty books in the romance genre<\/span>. Her latest launches December 26, about a heroine from the wrong side of the tracks who has nothing in common with the town hero. Jordan was interviewed by Lone Star Lit this week via email in advance of the book\u2019s release, to talk with us about how she achieved and maintains her success.<\/span><\/p>\n

LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE: <\/span>Where did you grow up, Sophie, and how do you think your birthplace influenced your writing?<\/span><\/p>\n

SOPHIE JORDAN:<\/span> I grew up in the Texas hill country. Thirty-five miles from any major city. No Internet. Maybe three channels on TV. Suffice to say my imagination was all I had. Books were the only entertainment available and (ultimately) my writing.<\/p>\n

What kinds of books did you enjoy reading when you were growing up?<\/p>\n

When I was in middle school and high school, the young adult genre was virtually nonexistent. It was a tiny fraction of the bookstore. I can still remember visiting the Book Stop in San Antonio and how small the \u201cTeen\u201d book shelf was. Needless to say, I went through what was available in YA quickly, jumping from Judy Blume<\/span> and Christopher Pike<\/span> to adult authors like Stephen King<\/span> and Victoria Holt<\/span>. At the age of fourteen, I discovered romance, and my love of the romance genre was born.<\/p>\n

When did you decide you wanted to be a writer yourself?<\/p>\n

I fell in love with writing as a teenager, but I didn’t seriously consider it as a viable career option until my late twenties. \u00a0 >>READ MORE<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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Texas’s only statewide, weekly calendar of book events
<\/span>Bookish Texas<\/span> event highlights\u00a0 12.10.2017 <\/span>>><\/span><\/a><\/span> GO this week\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Michelle Newby, Contributing Editor<\/span><\/h1>\n

SPECIAL EVENTS THIS WEEK<\/span><\/p>\n