{"id":1401,"date":"2018-12-31T17:03:10","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T17:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=1401"},"modified":"2018-12-31T17:03:10","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T17:03:10","slug":"lone-star-reviewsmichelle-newby-nbcc-121","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=1401","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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Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers<\/p>\n

Hardcover, 978-1-5344-0896-8 (also available as an e-book and audio-book), 400 pgs., $17.99<\/p>\n

March 27, 2018<\/p>\n

Penny is eighteen, beginning her freshman year at UT Austin. <\/span>She\u2019s funny, smart, and curious (in both senses of that word). She\u2019s an anxious introvert who \u201cwould rather eat a pound of hair than reveal her true emotions,\u201d highly organized, and a bit of a germaphobe. Penny, \u201cliving in books until the exciting part of her life could begin,\u201d can\u2019t wait to get away from her mother and her hometown boyfriend and begin her life as a science-fiction writer.<\/p>\n

Sam is twenty-one with \u201cirresponsible hair,\u201d managing the Coffee House where he\u2019s famous for his mad baking skills. He wants to be a documentary filmmaker but had to drop out of college because he couldn\u2019t afford it. A bit adrift, Sam is lonely, lives on a mattress upstairs at the coffee shop, trying to remain sober in the face of despair and \u201cgutted\u201d by a broken heart. Penny discovers Sam as he\u2019s in the middle of a panic attack on 6th Street (\u201ca Disneyland Main Street for day drinkers\u201d), and they exchange phone numbers in case of emergency.\u00a0 >>READ MORE<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Crown Publishing Group<\/p>\n

Hardcover, 978-0-8041-3800-0 (also available as an e-book and audio-book), 336 pgs., $27.00<\/p>\n

August 7, 2018<\/p>\n

\u201cThe medical and engineering professions were like a couple who were profoundly ill-suited for each other but determined to work together for the sake of the children.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heart disease is the number one killer on the planet. <\/span>It is the leading cause of death of both men and women in the United States, killing approximately 610,000 people in 2017 \u2014 one in every four deaths. Approximately twenty-six million Americans have heart disease; 2,150 of them die each day, an average of one death every forty seconds. The solution of choice is a heart transplant, but in any given year there are 2,500 hearts available for 50,000 patients on the waiting list. These are bad odds; and \u201cthe person who comes up with a way to replace a failing heart with an artificial one will save countless lives and change the future of humankind.\u201d We are talking another Louis Pasteur, Jonas Salk, or Marie Curie. And, of course, whoever crosses the finish line first will become wealthy beyond most people\u2019s wildest dreams.<\/p>\n

Ticker: The Quest to Create an Artificial Heart<\/span> is the second book from Texas journalist royalty Mimi Swartz.<\/span> Texans have read her work for decades in Texas Monthly,<\/span> where she is an executive editor. Swartz\u2019s National Magazine Award\u2013winning work appears in the New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Esquire, Slate,<\/span> and the New York Times.<\/span> In Ticker,<\/span> she has impeccably woven science, history, biography, and engineering to create an improbably true account of cardiology\u2019s pursuit of medicine\u2019s Holy Grail \u2014 a fully implantable artificial heart.\u00a0 >>READ MORE<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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AUTOBIOGRAPHY<\/span><\/p>\n

Bill Sarpalius,<\/span> with foreword by Bill Hobby<\/span><\/p>\n

The Grand Duke from Boys Ranch<\/span><\/p>\n

Texas A&M University Press<\/p>\n

Hardcover, 978-1-62349-657-9 (ebook also available), 336 pages, $34.95; April 2018<\/p>\n

Under normal circumstances, it\u2019s hard to get elected to the United States Congress.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bill Sarpalius,<\/span> who represented the Texas 13th Congressional District from 1989 to 1995, started out in life well behind almost all others who have served in the U.S. House. The tagline for Sarpalius\u2019s new autobiography states simply: \u201cFrom homeless to Congress….\u201d Yet, as this ably written and informative book makes clear, his journey to Capitol Hill actually was long, convoluted, and tough.<\/p>\n

As a small child in the Houston area, he had polio. Then his father abandoned his mother and left her penniless with three young children to raise. Sarpalius\u2019s mother became an alcoholic and substance abuser who repeatedly tried to kill herself. But Honey, as her kids knew her, also tried to take care of her family, even when they were homeless or living illegally in abandoned houses. Sometimes, she managed to sober up and work. Other times, Bill, her oldest son, dug food out of trash cans to help his brothers survive. At one point before he was a teen, Sarpalius had two paper routes, and that was his family\u2019s sole income.\u00a0 >>READ MORE<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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

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Author ranks top 50 Dallas Cowboys players<\/h1>\n

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Fans of the Dallas Cowboys can have fun reading \u2014 and debating<\/span> \u2014 The 50 Greatest Players in Dallas Cowboys History<\/span><\/a><\/span> by Robert W. Cohen<\/span> (Lone Star Books, $24.95 hardcover).<\/p>\n

Cohen, who has written several sports collections of the fifty-best variety, ranks the Cowboys from 1 to 50 and then adds fifty more honorable mention selections for a 424-page retrospective on the team\u2019s greatest stars.<\/p>\n

Number 1? Roger Staubach.<\/p>\n

Number 100? Duane Thomas.<\/p>\n

In between, Cohen\u2019s top 10 includes Bob Lilly, Emmitt Smith, Randy White, Michael Irvin, Larry Allen, Mel Renfro, Troy Aikman, Tony Dorsett, and Jason Witten.<\/p>\n

Bob Hayes came in at 20, Tony Romo at 25, Don Meredith at 40, special teams standout Bill Bates at 48.<\/p>\n

Each of the top fifty selections receives a six or seven page spread, including a biography, career highlights, and notable achievements. Cohen also offers his all-time Cowboy offensive and defensive teams, position by position. Plenty to read, and argue about.<\/p>\n

Super Bowl MVP:<\/span> Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Nick Foles, <\/span>who played his high school football in Texas, writes about the highs and lows of his pro football career in a spiritual autobiography, Believe It: My Journey of Success, Failure, and Overcoming the Odds<\/span><\/a><\/span> (Tyndale Momentum, $26.99 hardcover)<\/p>\n

Foles enjoyed early success with the Eagles before being traded to the St. Louis Rams. After a bad year in St. Louis, he nearly quit the game but came back as a backup quarterback and eventually took the Eagles to their first Super Bowl championship.<\/p>\n

Foles, a devout Christian who is taking seminary courses online, writes, \u201cNow that God has placed me in a position of influence, I want to share my own journey \u2014 warts and all \u2014 with people. I love football, but football isn\u2019t my first love. God is, then my family. Football comes after that. And because I have that perspective, I\u2019m a much better player than I was before.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the way, another 2017 pro quarterback hero from Texas \u2014 Abilene\u2019s Case Keenum<\/span> (The Minnesota Miracle) shares his story of\u00a0 faith, family and football in an upcoming book, Playing for More,<\/span> due for release on Sept. 4. I\u2019ve read an advance reader copy and it\u2019s very inspiring. More on that later.<\/p>\n

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Cowboy Barbecue: Fire & Smoke from the Original Texas Vaqueros<\/span><\/a><\/span> by Adrian Davila<\/span> (with Ann Volkwein<\/span>) is a cookbook as well as a celebration of his family\u2019s history through Davila\u2019s BBQ in Seguin (The Countryman Press, $24.95 paperback).<\/p>\n

Before getting to the recipes, Davila offers a chapter on cooking techniques, including \u201csmoking meat the Davila way.\u201d Davila\u2019s recipes get right to the main ingredient \u2014 meat \u2014 to start with, followed by sections\u00a0 on tacos and tamales, soups and chilis, vegetables and sides, tortillas and breads, and sauces and salsas.<\/p>\n

Meat recipes include mesquite brisket, smoked beef tongue, beef jerky, whole pig asado style, smoked pulled pork, tinga de pollo, brined and smoked whole turkey, smoked fresh oysters, and glazed barbecued salmon, to mention just a few.<\/p>\n

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Glenn Dromgoole<\/span> writes about Texas books and authors. Contact him at g.dromgoole@suddenlink.net.<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/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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10th annual Texas Teen Book Festival author lineup announced<\/h1>\n

Thirty-six YA authors will be featured<\/span> at the tenth annual Texas Teen Book Festival (TTBF) on the campus of St. Edward\u2019s University in Austin on Saturday, October 6, 2018. The lineup includes Ebony Adams, PhD<\/span> (History vs Women: The Defiant Lives That They Don\u2019t Want You to Know<\/span>), Adib Khorram<\/span> (Darius the Great Is Not Okay<\/span>), David Levithan<\/span> (Someday<\/span>), Samantha Mabry<\/span> (All the Wind in the World<\/span>), and Lilliam Rivera<\/span> (The Education of Margot S\u00e1nchez<\/span>).<\/p>\n

The keynote speakers this year are Nic Stone<\/span> and Neal and Jarrod Shusterman.\u00a0 <\/span>>>READ MORE<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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<\/span><\/span> Twig\u2019s Top Ten Bestsellers<\/h1>\n

July 2018<\/h1>\n

What are Texans reading these days, you ask? <\/span>Lone Star Lit\u2019s newest regular feature is a monthly list of trending titles at the <\/span>Twig Book Shop,<\/span><\/a><\/span> a leading independent bookseller in San Antonio. Click on any title for the Buy link. And we’ll also include a hotlink to related content in Lone Star Literary Life.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lawrence Wright,<\/span> God Save Texas, <\/span>978-0-525520108<\/span><\/p>\n

Shari Lapena,<\/span>The Couple Next Door, <\/span>978-0-735221109<\/span><\/p>\n

Neil Gaiman<\/span>Norse Mythology\u00a0 <\/span> 978-0-393356182<\/span><\/p>\n

Andrew Sean Greer,<\/span>Less,<\/span> 978-0316316132<\/span><\/p>\n

HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Mental Toughness,<\/span> 978-1633694361<\/span><\/p>\n

Margaret Atwood,<\/span>The Handmaid\u2019s Tale , <\/span>978-0385490818<\/span><\/p>\n

Jen Sincero<\/span>You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life <\/span> 978-0762490547<\/span><\/p>\n

George Saunders,<\/span>Lincoln in the Bardo,<\/span> 978-0-812985405<\/span><\/p>\n

Rupi Kaur,<\/span>The Sun and Her Flowers,<\/span> 978-1449486792<\/span><\/p>\n

HBR\u2019s 10 Must Reads on Emotional Intelligence (Hbr’s 10 Must Reads)\u00a0 <\/span>9781633690196<\/span><\/p>\n

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LONE STAR CLASSIFIED LISTINGS<\/span><\/h1>\n

FEATURED:\u00a0 PRIZE COMPETITIONS<\/h1>\n

6.3.18<\/span>\u00a0 The 2018 Julia Darling Memorial Poetry Prize<\/span><\/p>\n

A prize of $750.00 and publication in The Ocotillo Review<\/span> Winter 2019 will be awarded for a poem of up to 65 lines. Carrie Fountain<\/span> will judge. Revenue generated will be donated to cancer research. Details: www.kallistogaiapress.org<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

6.3.18\u00a0 The 2018 Chester B. Himes Memorial Short Fiction Prize<\/span><\/p>\n

A prize of $750.00 and publication in The Ocotillo Review<\/span> Winter 2019 will be awarded for a short story up to 4,200 words. Antonio Ruiz-Camacho<\/span> will judge. Revenue generated will be donated to Parkinson\u2019s research. Details: www.kallistogaiapress.org<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

>>READ MORE<\/span><\/a><\/span> CLASSIFIED LISTINGS<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span>WHERE IN TEXAS?<\/span><\/h1>\n

Don’t miss a reading or a good read! Sign up for our FREE weekly
e-newsletter<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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Meet our bloggers<\/h1>\n

Bookmark them so you can return again and again!<\/p>\n

A Page Before Bedtime<\/span><\/a><\/span>, Melyssa Prince<\/p>\n

All the Ups and Downs<\/span><\/a><\/span>, Heather Cranmer<\/p>\n

Bibliotica<\/span><\/a><\/span>, Melissa Bartell
Book Fidelity,<\/span><\/a><\/span> Celia Medrano-Ortiz
#Bookish<\/span><\/a><\/span>, Erin Decker<\/p>\n

Books and Broomsticks<\/span><\/a><\/span>, Belle Whittington<\/p>\n

Books in the Garden<\/span><\/a><\/span>, Julia Byers
Carpe Diem Chronicles<\/span><\/a><\/span>, Maida Malby<\/p>\n

Chapter Break Book Blog<\/span><\/a><\/span>, Lynn Poppe & Julia Smeltzer<\/p>\n

The Clueless Gent<\/span><\/a><\/span>, Michael O’Connor<\/p>\n

Forgotten Winds<\/span><\/a><\/span>, Christena Stephens<\/p>\n

Hall Ways Blog<\/span><\/a><\/span>, Kristine Hall
Kelly Well Read<\/a><\/span>, Kelly Moore<\/p>\n

The Librarian Talks<\/span><\/a><\/span>, Tabatha Pope
The Love of a Bibliophile<\/span><\/a><\/span>, Kristen Mouton<\/p>\n

Margie\u2019s Must Reads<\/span><\/a><\/span>, Margie Longoria
Max Knight Blog<\/span><\/a><\/span>, Max Knight<\/p>\n

Missus Gonzo<\/span><\/a><\/span>, Lorilei Gonzales<\/p>\n

Momma on the Rocks<\/span><\/a><\/span>, Jenn Belden<\/p>\n

Nerd Narration Blog<\/span>,<\/a> Taylor Sebring<\/p>\n

The Page Unbound<\/span><\/a><\/span>, Becca Cahill & Haley Ringer<\/p>\n

Reading by Moonlight<\/span><\/a><\/span>, Ruthie Jones<\/p>\n

StoreyBook Reviews<\/span><\/a><\/span>, Leslie Storey<\/p>\n

Story Schmoozing Book Reviews<\/span><\/a><\/span>, Marissa Marroquin<\/p>\n

Syd Savvy<\/span><\/a><\/span>, Sydney Young<\/p>\n

Tangled in Text<\/span><\/a><\/span>, Kelli Quintos<\/p>\n

Texas Book Lover<\/span><\/a><\/span>, Michelle Newby<\/p>\n

That\u2019s What She\u2019s Reading<\/span><\/a><\/span>, Jenn Zavaglia<\/p>\n

RECENTLY ON TOUR: FICTION<\/h1>\n

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The Edge of Over There by Shawn Smucker<\/h1>\n

COMING IN AUGUST<\/h1>\n

The Hope of Azure Springs<\/span> by Rachel Fordham, August 4\u20135<\/p>\n

That One Moment<\/span> by Patty Wiseman, August 14\u201323<\/p>\n

Justice Betrayed<\/span> by Patricia Bradley, August 15\u201322<\/p>\n

The Grand Duke from Boys Ranch<\/span> by Bill Sarpalius, August 21\u201330<\/p>\n

The Theory of Happily Ever After<\/span> by Kristin Billerbeck, August 22\u201331<\/p>\n

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Lone Star Literary Life Facts and FAQs<\/span><\/h1>\n

\u2022 Editorial policies<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 Review policies<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 Advertising policies<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 Event and resource list policies<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Lone Star Literary Archives<\/span><\/h1>\n

\u2022 Weekly issues<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 Lone Star Listens Interviews<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 Lone Star Book Reviews<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 Texas Reads<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 Events<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 Announcement: LSLL Launches<\/a><\/p>\n

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2018 Kids’ Summer Reading\u00a0 <\/span>NEW BOOKS ADDED!<\/span><\/h1>\n

sponsored by Blue Wilow Books<\/a><\/span>hop<\/h1>\n

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From read-to-me books to early readers,<\/span> chapter books to middle readers to YA, you\u2019ll find these terrific new titles at your neighborhood bookshop or online. >>READ MORE<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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WHAT TEXANS ARE READING<\/span><\/h1>\n

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

Author interviews by Lone Star Lit staff<\/span><\/h1>\n

8.5.2018\u00a0\u00a0 Dr. Norma E. Cantu waxes philosophical on life stories and new projects during the dog days of summer<\/h1>\n

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Texas \u2014 and the rest of the nation and world <\/span>\u2014 is undergoing a rich resurgence of literature in all genres by Latino\/Latina writers. One major contributor to this renaissance is <\/span>Dr. Norma E. Cant\u00fa,<\/span> who has written eloquently from creative and academic perspectives. She shares her long view with us during the \u201cdog days\u201d when the stars of Canis Major dominate the summer skies and professors take time to reflect before a new teaching year begins.<\/span><\/p>\n

LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE:<\/span> Dr. Cant\u00fa, you published <\/span>Can\u00edcula: Snapshots of a Girlhood en la Frontera<\/span> in 1995, and it won the Premio Aztl\u00e1n Literary Prize from the National Hispanic Cultural Center. You\u2019ve referred to <\/span>Can\u00edcula<\/span> as a \u201cfictionalized memoir\u201d and an ethnography about your childhood in South Texas. Please tell us about <\/span>Can\u00edcula<\/span> and the 2015 update.<\/span><\/p>\n

DR. NORM E. CANT\u00da<\/span>: I wrote Can\u00edcula<\/span> in the summer of 1993 in Albuquerque during a break from teaching at what is now Texas A&M International University, where I taught English from 1980 to 2000. It was a watershed moment for me as I gathered pieces I had been writing all along. My intent that summer was to finish a book on the matachines<\/span> tradition, but instead the stories of my childhood nudged their way in. Working on a rental computer\u2014we had no laptops back then\u2014I worked nonstop day and night taking brief breaks to walk to Old Town for a breakfast taco and to pick up some fruit for my evening meal. I published a few pieces in what was then the Texas Humanist, a publication of the Texas Committee for the Humanities, so I suppose I reverted to that format and structure out of habit, for I had been working with photographs as an exercise for my students. In 2010, I held a literary quincea\u00f1era for the book and in 2015 published a twentieth anniversary edition with added photos and stories.<\/p>\n

If you could dive through a wormhole in the space-time continuum, what advice and inspiration would you offer the child Norma as she weathers the dog days?<\/p>\n

The child Norma spent the lazy days of the can\u00edcula in a four-room frame house in Laredo, Texas, where the dog days are particularly brutal. She would scavenge the local dump, or cascajera, with her siblings and neighbors in the morning when it was not so hot and spent the afternoon playing with the treasures they found and telling stories, making up fantastic tales. >>READ MORE<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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Texas’s only statewide, weekly calendar of book events
<\/span><\/a><\/span>Bookish Texas <\/span>event highlights\u00a0 8.5.2018<\/span>>> GO this week<\/span><\/a><\/span>Michelle Newby, Contributing Editor<\/span><\/h1>\n

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