{"id":1201,"date":"2018-12-31T16:11:34","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T16:11:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=1201"},"modified":"2018-12-31T16:11:34","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T16:11:34","slug":"lone-star-reviewsmichelle-newby-nbcc-97","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=1201","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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1.21.2018<\/p>\n

BIOGRAPHY<\/p>\n

Mary Lou Sullivan<\/span><\/p>\n

Everything\u2019s Bigger in Texas: The Life and Times of Kinky Friedman<\/span><\/p>\n

Backbeat Books<\/p>\n

Hardcover, 978-1495058967, 344 pages, $29.99 (also available as ebook); October 2017<\/p>\n

Reviewed by Si Dunn<\/p>\n

Chicago native Richard \u201cKinky\u201d Friedman has lived a bigger life in Texas<\/span> than most other Lone Star State inhabitants would dare. Indeed, Kinky\u2019s name is now recognized across the nation and in many other parts of the the world. But what he is remembered for, besides being famous, can be harder to pin down.<\/p>\n

He is perhaps best known as a Jewish country-western singer and songwriter who became a mystery novelist, a Texas Monthly<\/span> columnist, a serious candidate for Texas governor, and a national TV political commentator, among other things. He also is an animal rights activist and friends with many musicians and pop-culture celebrities. And, now in his seventies, he again has been hitting the road to perform his songs \u2014 drawing inspiration from two other still-traveling troubadours: Willie Nelson, now in his eighties, and Bob Dylan, now in his mid-seventies.<\/p>\n

\u201cKinky\u2019s legacy is the ability to inspire, to make people laugh, to make them think, to skewer sacred cows and hypocrisy, to continue to move forward, and to be his own man,\u201d Mary Lou Sullivan<\/span> writes.\u00a0 >>READ MORE<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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Lone Star Lit launches Indiegogo campaign \u201918: Help us showcase more books, more authors, more ways in 2018!<\/h1>\n

Lone Star Literary Life covers the Texas literary scene like no one else,<\/span> week in and week out. Since 2015, we\u2019ve given Texas authors, booksellers, libraries, publishers, and readers a trusted platform of their own. With shrinking coverage devoted to books in mainstream media \u2014 and most of that focused on the same handful of national bestsellers \u2014 where were Texas authors to get noticed, and where were Texas readers to discover the books they crave? We\u2019ve stepped up to make sure the Lone Star State doesn\u2019t lose touch with its rich literary heritage, and that Texas books get their due.<\/p>\n

At the start of our second year, notable Texas literary figures gave us a boost by taking part in a testimonial video, produced by Doug Baum of Waco. We think our case holds up remarkably well \u2014 and we\u2019ve featured it in our 2018 campaign as well. Check out out, below.<\/p>\n

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We hope you’ll be able to spare a tiny bit of your budget to help take our coverage to the next level in 2018. We\u2019ve got some great new books coming up as perks, and some attractive discounts on book promotional packages as well.<\/p>\n

Visit the campaign site at https:\/\/igg.me\/at\/LoneStarLiterary<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Thanks in advance, y\u2019all!<\/p>\n

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

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\u00a0Author compiles stories of refugees in Texas<\/h1>\n

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Dr. Daina Jurika-Owen has published an impressive book,<\/span> Ten Cultures, Twenty Lives: Refugee Life Stories<\/span><\/a><\/span> (Amaya Books, $16.89 paperback), consisting of first person stories of refugees who made a new life for themselves in Abilene, Texas.<\/p>\n

Jurika-Owen, who is from Latvia in Eastern Europe, worked for nine years with a refugee resettlement agency in Abilene, so she got to know hundreds of refugees on a personal level. As she helped them get settled and find jobs, she listened to their stories and decided they needed to be compiled in a book.<\/p>\n

The book includes stories by refugees from several African countries as well as Iraq, Cuba, and Nepal. African cultures represented in the book include Liberia, Rwanda, the Big Congo, and Burundi.\u00a0 Their stories seem especially relevant given the recent developments in U.S. immigration policy.<\/p>\n

\u201cRefugees and their stories are close to my heart,\u201d Jurika-Owen writes. \u201cWhile each story is unique, it also shares many traits with other refugee stories, such as a happy childhood, a good life before the conflict or war, flight and loss, life in a refugee camp or asylum country, the resettlement process, coming to the U.S., and the new life in America.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dime Box?<\/span> Actor Tom Hanks<\/span> makes an obscure reference to tiny Dime Box, Texas, in his new collection of short fiction, Uncommon Type: Some Stories<\/span><\/a><\/span> (Knopf, $26.95 hardcover).<\/p>\n

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In a story about a father and son going surfing at Mars Beach (\u201cWelcome to Mars\u201d), the father says to his son, \u201cYou ever been to the upper floors of the Chrysler Building?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn New York City?\u201d the son asks.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d the father replies sarcastically, \u201cDime Box, Texas.\u201d<\/p>\n

I wonder how Tom Hanks knows of Dime Box. I e-mailed the publisher, and received a reply from the publicist that she didn\u2019t know and Hanks was too busy with the opening of his new movie, The Post,<\/span> to answer e-mails.<\/p>\n

Hanks spoke at the Texas Book Festival in November and took some questions from the crowd. I watched a video, but if anyone asked about the Dime Box connection, it wasn\u2019t on the segment I saw. However, I did see Hanks help a man in the audience pop the question to his girlfriend on stage. That was quite a memorable marriage proposal.<\/p>\n

Hanks\u2019s stories, by the way, have a common link. They all mention a typewriter in one way or another, and pictures of Hanks\u2019s own manual typewriters (he collects them) are interspersed throughout the book.<\/p>\n

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Glenn Dromgoole<\/span> has been writing his Texas Reads column since 2002, focusing on Texas books and authors. 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 Lit launches Indiegogo campaign \u201918: Help us showcase more books, more authors, more ways in 2018!\u00a0 >>READ MORE<\/span><\/h1>\n

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

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

1.21.2018\u00a0 Thriller author Meg Gardiner on Austin, Alpine, and a new TV series in the works<\/h1>\n

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\u201cHer novels are, simply put, the finest crime-suspense series I’ve come across in the last twenty years.\u201d \u2014Stephen King<\/span><\/p>\n

Austin author Meg Gardiner has written thirteen critically acclaimed novels<\/span>. Her latest, Into the Black Nowhere: An UNSUB Novel,<\/span> is the second installment in her new series of thrillers, soon to be a CBS television series. A native Californian, she now calls Austin home, and her latest book is set in Texas. If you love thrillers \u2014 and trust Stephen King\u2019s judgment \u2014 you\u2019ll want to get to know her work. This week she spoke with us via email and you can get to know the author personally in Lone Star Listens.<\/span><\/p>\n

LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE:<\/span> Meg, You were raised in Santa Barbara, California. How would you describe your growing-up days? And how might they have influenced your writing?<\/span><\/p>\n

MEG GARDINER:<\/span> Santa Barbara was a wonderful place to grow up. It\u2019s a beautiful city surrounded by mountains and beaches, and I spent much of my childhood outdoors. My parents were teachers\u2014my dad was an English professor at the University of California\u2014and both were classical musicians. They gave me a love of music, art, literature, and encouraged my creativity. They believed I could be anything I wanted to be, which gave me the courage to aim high. I\u2019ve set six of my novels in Santa Barbara.<\/p>\n

Of course, California also suffers earthquakes and wildfires, which I\u2019ve written about. And the Santa Barbara area has just been devastated by mudslides. It\u2019s heartbreaking. I\u2019m relieved that friends survived and are digging out.\u00a0\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 1.21.2018 <\/span>>><\/span><\/a><\/span> GO this week\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Michelle Newby, Contributing Editor<\/span><\/h1>\n

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