{"id":407,"date":"2018-12-31T12:10:28","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T12:10:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=407"},"modified":"2018-12-31T12:10:28","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T12:10:28","slug":"lone-star-reviewsmichelle-newby-nbcc-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=407","title":{"rendered":"Lone Star ReviewsMichelle Newby, NBCC,"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Contributing Editor<\/span><\/h1>\n
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<\/span><\/span><\/span>PUBLIC AFFAIRS<\/span><\/p>\n

Dr. Robert Brescia<\/span><\/p>\n

The Americanism of John Ben Shepperd<\/span><\/p>\n

Infinity Publishing<\/p>\n

Paperback, 390 pages, with numerous b\/w images, 978-1-4958-0831-9, $22.95<\/p>\n

November 1, 2015<\/p>\n

John Ben Shepperd (1915\u20131990)<\/span> was a Texas secretary of state and Texas attorney general in the 1950s. After he left state government in 1957, he continued in public service as director, chairman, or president of thirty-two organizations that ranged from the Texas Historical Commission and U.S. Jaycees Foundation to the Baylor College of Dentistry and University of Texas Centennial Commission.<\/p>\n

Shepperd was a major proponent of \u201cAmericanism,\u201d which the author of this book, Dr. Robert Brescia, describes as \u201ca complex ideology…a worldview or conviction giving special importance to our nation within the world of nations. It is a belief in the preeminence of our \u2018way of life\u2019 among all others \u2013 that our way of American life is special and more desirable than others.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

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

>> archive<\/span><\/a><\/span>Author documents black holocaust in Texas<\/span><\/h1>\n

<\/a><\/span><\/span>Black Holocaust: The Paris Horror and a Legacy of Texas Terror<\/span><\/a><\/span> by E. R. Bills<\/span> (Eakin Press, $19.95 paperback) documents cases of forty black men and one Hispanic man being burned at the stake in Texas by vigilantes from 1861 to 1933 after being accused of murder, rape and other crimes.<\/p>\n

\u201cBurning a living, breathing human being at the stake,\u201d Bills writes, \u201cis never simply a matter of murder or lynching. It\u2019s an act of terror, monstrosity and madness.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis book,\u201d he warns readers, \u201cchronicles a period of holocaust and human cinder. If you\u2019re fragile \u2014 white or black \u2014 this is not a book for you.\u201d Read more at eakinpress.com.<\/p>\n

Free blacks:<\/span> Free Blacks in Antebellum Texas<\/span><\/a><\/span> (University of North Texas Press, $45 hardcover) is a collection of essays written by two University of Texas students in the 1930s and 1940s that were published in various journals but never in book form until now. Historians Bruce Glasrud<\/span> of San Antonio and Milton S. Jordan<\/span> of Georgetown edited the book and wrote the introduction to the essays by Harold R. Schoen<\/span> on free blacks in the Republic of Texas and Andrew Forest Muir<\/span> on free blacks after Texas became a state. Read more at untpress.unt.edu<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

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Medieval novel:<\/span> \u201cIf West Texas farmers, ranchers or small-town people had lived in a wild and warlike part of England before it was England,\u201d poses Canyon novelist Donald Mace Williams,<\/span> \u201chow would they have responded to the hard, close-to-nature work, the wars and the subservient life?\u201d Williams\u2019s novel, The Sparrow and the Hall<\/span><\/a><\/span> (Bagwyn Books, $12.95 paperback), is set in the turbulent seventh century in Northumbria and involves war, plague, and an ordeal by boiling water.<\/p>\n

Williams, a retired journalist and professor, said he based the characters in his novel \u201clargely on people I know and love\u201d in West Texas. A Beowulf<\/span> scholar, Williams earlier published a poetry chapbook, Wolfe,<\/span> a retelling of the Beowulf-Grendel story in a Texas setting.<\/p>\n

Read more about The Sparrow and the Hall<\/span> at acmrs.org<\/a><\/span>. Bagwyn Books is an imprint of the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies.<\/p>\n

West Texas teacher:<\/span> Retired Iraan teacher Charlena Chandler<\/span> has republished a memoir of essays about her years as a teacher, with sections dealing with literature, football, cheerleading, school publications and extracurricular activities. The book came out last year as Dead Javelinas Are Not Allowed on School Property.<\/span> But now she\u2019s given it a more dignified title perhaps more in keeping with the subject matter: Shakespeare on the Pecos.<\/span><\/a><\/span> It\u2019s $15.95 paperback. Read more at iuniverse.com<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

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

Lone Star Literary Life to introduce new features, crowdfunding in celebration of first anniversary Feb. 2<\/h1>\n

On February 2, 2015, Lone Star Literary Life<\/span> published its first issue of Texas’s only comprehensive statewide books-news coverage. We launched on Groundhog Day with a robust subscriber list of Texas booksellers, publishers, libraries, authors, and, most important of all, readers.<\/p>\n

We pledged to deliver thoughtful reviews of new Texas books, first-person profiles and interviews of Texas authors, news and coverage of awards, festivals, and author tours, and the state’s only full calendar of book events \u2014 every week. And we’ve done so for almost 52 weeks now, bringing readers, writers, publishers, publicists, and librarians the latest in bookish Texas news and information.<\/p>\n

We’re supported by advertising, providing a guaranteed vehicle to promote Texas-related books. And in our first year, we introduced such popular features as Lone Star Book Blog Tours, author podcasts, and Top Texas Bookish Destinations, which present editorial content around which publishers, booksellers, and authors can build paid campaigns.<\/p>\n

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We’ve got even bigger plans in store for 2016. Stay tuned over the next few weeks. And watch for details on our Indiegogo campaign \u2014 to learn how you can help Lone Star Lit grow and also earn unique perks.<\/p>\n

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Make a note of our hashtag: #LoneStarLit2016<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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