{"id":1208,"date":"2018-12-31T16:13:03","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T16:13:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=1208"},"modified":"2018-12-31T16:13:03","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T16:13:03","slug":"lone-star-reviewsmichelle-newby-nbcc-98","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=1208","title":{"rendered":"Lone Star ReviewsMichelle Newby, NBCC,"},"content":{"rendered":"
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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

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

\u00a0Novel\u2019s character grapples with early dementia<\/h1>\n

Houston author Evan Moore has penned a sensitive, literate novel<\/span> dealing with early onset dementia.<\/p>\n

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Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang<\/span> <\/a>(Moonshine Cove Publishing, $13.99 paperback) tells the story of a 60-year-old weekly newspaper publisher who lives with his college-age son on the family\u2019s Texas ranch. Ethan Breen realizes that he has symptoms of early dementia, which had struck both his father and grandfather, and he is considering killing himself as his father did. But he wonders: Can he actually go through with it when the time comes?<\/p>\n

Ethan asks his son Kevin to accompany him on a road trip so he can visit some old friends and perhaps come to grips with something that has haunted him since high school. Along the way he tells Kevin stories about his life \u2014 some of them humorous, some poignant \u2014 that the young man had never heard.<\/p>\n

A personal note: My father died from Alzheimer\u2019s in 2000. Soon after he was diagnosed we went on a road trip together where he told me stories I had never heard before. So I found Evan Moore\u2019s novel, which I read in two days, to be compelling and heartfelt.<\/p>\n

Campus mystery:<\/span> Judy Alter,<\/span> who was director of TCU Press for twenty years and is a prolific author herself, has written a second murder mystery set on a mythical Texas university campus.<\/p>\n

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Pigface and the Perfect Dog<\/span><\/a><\/span> (Alter Ego Publishing, $12.99 paperback) is the second in her new Oak Grove Mysteries series, following The Perfect Coed.<\/span> Alter gets to the action right away as protagonist Susan Hogan confronts a rifle-packing customer in a grocery store, and by the third page a college student\u2019s body has been found in a nearby pasture. The book drew a rave from fellow Texas mystery writer Susan Wittig Albert:<\/span> \u201cJudy Alter\u2019s Perfect mysteries are just that \u2014 perfectly readable, suspenseful, and engaging. This one will keep you guessing to the very end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Private eye thriller:<\/span> ESPN football analyst and author Paul Finebaum<\/span> offers this endorsement of Jim Nesbitt\u2019s<\/span> private eye novel, The Right Wrong Number<\/span><\/a><\/span> (Spotted Mule Press, $12.99 paperback): \u201cJim Nesbitt\u2019s latest hard-boiled Texas thriller is another masterpiece. \u2018The Right Wrong Number\u2019 has everything to keep the reader turning the page \u2014 vivid characters, stark Texas landscape, non-stop action and a classic American anti-hero in Ed Earl Burch, Nesbitt\u2019s battered but dogged Dallas PI. Buckle up and brace yourself for another wild ride.\u201d<\/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

* * * * *<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Contributing Editor 1.21.2018 BIOGRAPHY Mary Lou Sullivan Everything\u2019s Bigger in Texas: The Life and Times of Kinky Friedman Backbeat Books Hardcover, 978-1495058967, 344 pages, $29.99 (also available as ebook); October 2017 Reviewed by Si Dunn Chicago native Richard \u201cKinky\u201d Friedman has lived a bigger life in Texas than most other Lone Star State inhabitants would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1208\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}