{"id":365,"date":"2018-12-31T11:58:27","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T11:58:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=365"},"modified":"2018-12-31T11:58:27","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T11:58:27","slug":"texas-reads-archiveglenn-dromgoole-33","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=365","title":{"rendered":"Texas Reads>> archiveGlenn Dromgoole"},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/span><\/span>Texas Reads<\/span>>> archive<\/span><\/a><\/span>Glenn Dromgoole<\/span><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n

12.6.15\u00a0\u00a0 New biographies focus on two presidents from Texas<\/h1>\n

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<\/a><\/span><\/span>Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and George H. W.\u00a0 Bush<\/span> are the subjects of two important new biographies making national best-seller lists.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

The Johnson book \u2014 Lady Bird and Lyndon: The Hidden Story of a Marriage That Made a President<\/span><\/a><\/span> by Betty Boyd Caroli<\/span> (Simon & Schuster, $29.99) \u2014 tells the story of their marriage and their political partnership, especially Lady Bird\u2019s role in it. Caroli, author of First Ladies<\/span> and The Roosevelt Women,<\/span> spent six years poring over archives, letters, books, and other material and interviewing dozens of people close to the Johnsons. Her book is about 400 pages plus notes and index.<\/p>\n

Jon Meacham,<\/span> who wrote a Pulitzer Prize\u2013winning biography of Andrew Jackson, is the author of Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush<\/span><\/a><\/span> (Random House, $35).<\/p>\n

Meacham\u2019s book \u2014 a comprehensive biography of the elder Bush \u2014 is about 600 pages plus another 200 pages of notes and index. The author interviewed Bush numerous times over a nine-year period as well as more than a hundred of Bush\u2019s family, friends, aides, critics, and others. Meacham was granted access to Bush\u2019s extensive diaries, as well as those of Barbara Bush.<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/span>Both books provide readable insider portraits of two of Texas\u2019s most influential political families and how they helped shape and define American and world history in the twentieth century.<\/p>\n

Sports Devotionals:<\/span> Ed McMinn,<\/span> a retired pastor in Georgia, is the author of a series of devotional books aimed at college sports fans. His \u201cDaily Devotions for Die-Hard Fans\u201d<\/a><\/span> consist of about ninety college-specific two-page meditations based on sports stories and characters from the school.<\/p>\n

So far, he\u2019s done books featuring thirty-six universities, including five in Texas \u2014 Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, TCU and Baylor. They sell for $15.99.<\/p>\n

Each story \u2014 most of them involving football, but also other sports \u2014 begins with a Bible verse followed by a sports anecdote from that school\u2019s history and concludes with a Christian message and a brief summary of the religious point he is trying to make. For example, in his Baylor book, McMinn relates how Baylor players and fans celebrated winning the Big 12 Conference football championship in 2013 and then asks readers to imagine an even greater celebration in heaven.<\/p>\n

Now McMinn has also started a series of \u201cDaily Devotions for Die-Hard Kids,\u201d<\/a><\/span> also college-specific. Of the first six books in the series, three revolve around Texas colleges \u2014 Texas, Texas A&M and Baylor. The books for kids ages 6\u201312 include about seventy stories and sell for $13.99.<\/p>\n

One of the stories in the book for Texas A&M kids concerns a basketball game when the Aggie radio announcer Dave South was thrown out of a game for making comments about the officiating. South became famous across the country because of the incident. McMinn\u2019s message to kids is that you are already famous where it really counts \u2014 because God knows who you are.<\/p>\n

Read more at die-hardfans.com<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

* * * * *<\/p>\n

Glenn Dromgoole<\/span> is co-author, with Carlton Stowers, of 101 Essential Texas Books<\/span><\/a><\/span> Contact him at g.dromgoole@suddenlink.net.<\/p>\n

>> <\/span>Read his past Texas Reads columns in Lone Star Literary Life here.<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/h1>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Texas Reads>> archiveGlenn Dromgoole 12.6.15\u00a0\u00a0 New biographies focus on two presidents from Texas Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and George H. W.\u00a0 Bush are the subjects of two important new biographies making national best-seller lists. The Johnson book \u2014 Lady Bird and Lyndon: The Hidden Story of a Marriage That Made a President by Betty Boyd […]<\/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-365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365","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=365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}