{"id":846,"date":"2018-12-31T14:18:23","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T14:18:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=846"},"modified":"2018-12-31T14:18:23","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T14:18:23","slug":"glenn-dromgooles-texas-reads-column-appears-weekly-at-lonestarliterary-com-51","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=846","title":{"rendered":"Glenn Dromgoole’s Texas Reads column appears weekly at LoneStarLiterary.com"},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/span><\/span>Texas Reads<\/span>>> archive<\/span><\/a><\/span>Glenn Dromgoole<\/span><\/h1>\n

3.5.2017\u00a0\u00a0 Historians explore special moments in Texas history<\/h1>\n

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<\/a><\/span>Fifteen prominent Texas historians were invited<\/span> to answer this question: \u201cAt what moment in Texas history would you have liked to have been a \u2018fly on the wall\u2019 and why?\u201d Their responding essays constitute a compelling new book, Eavesdropping on Texas History<\/span><\/a><\/span> (University of North Texas Press, $29.95 hardcover), edited by Mary L. Scheer,<\/span> who also contributed one of the pieces.<\/p>\n

Scheer, who teaches history at Lamar University, said the project grew out of the premise that history \u201cis inherently interesting, intriguing, instructive, and fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLike many other historians and writers,\u201d she added, \u201cI have often thought about a particular event or moment and amusingly wished I\u2019d been there to eavesdrop on history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, the day the Alamo fell was one of the events cited. The raid that recaptured Cynthia Ann Parker from the Comanches was another, as was the day that Governor Sam Houston refused to take a loyalty oath to the Confederacy. Other historians chose such widely diverse topics as the Black Sunday dust storm \u201cof biblical proportions\u201d in the Panhandle in 1935, the SMU-TCU football \u201cgame of the century\u201d in 1935, the establishment of Texas Southern University in 1947, and the day Lyndon B. Johnson became president after the assassination of John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963.<\/p>\n

At the end of each story, the historians offer brief personal observations as to why they would have liked to be the proverbial \u201cfly on the wall\u201d for that particular event. If you like Texas history, there\u2019s a lot of good reading in this collection.<\/p>\n

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<\/span><\/span><\/span>Western novel:<\/span> San Angelo author Mike Thompson<\/span> spins quite a tale in The Turbulent Trail<\/span><\/a><\/span> (Five Star, $25.95 hardcover), a western novel featuring the life and hard times \u2014 and yet incredibly good luck -\u2014 of Charlie Deegan. We pick up Charlie in a Yuma prison where he is doing ten years of hard time for killing a man in a barroom knife fight. Charlie was quite drunk at the time, but his actions were all in self-defense.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, he finds himself in a virtually escape-proof Yuma prison, again having to kill a man in self-defense. Charlie figures it\u2019s time to make his unlikely getaway, and when his plan works he then has to stay ahead of the dogs and men on horseback and a vengeful Indian tracker. Charlie Deegan is resourceful and tough. And fate smiles on him time after time, just when it looks like Charlie can\u2019t possibly get out of this next situation alive.<\/p>\n

Charlie dreams of escaping the desert and joining a trail driving outfit, but first he has to come to terms with the fact that liquor keeps getting him in bad trouble. The reader can\u2019t help but pull for Charlie Deegan to make it.<\/p>\n

Glenn Dromgoole\u2019s<\/span> latest book is West Texas Stories<\/span><\/a><\/span>Contact him at g.dromgoole@suddenlink.net.<\/p>\n

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

Texas Reads>> archiveGlenn Dromgoole 3.5.2017\u00a0\u00a0 Historians explore special moments in Texas history Fifteen prominent Texas historians were invited to answer this question: \u201cAt what moment in Texas history would you have liked to have been a \u2018fly on the wall\u2019 and why?\u201d Their responding essays constitute a compelling new book, Eavesdropping on Texas History (University […]<\/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-846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846","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=846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}