Texas Pages

If that got your attention, you'll like Bill Marvel's review of "Storm Warning." And if you like that, you might be interested in the piece below that Bill wrote about storm chasers back in 1992. Still sounds like fun to me.

Also want to check in later at www.dallasnews.com for the "Disaster Dallas" package, about the destructive 1957 twister that ripped through town. The video is already available.

It may be a bit of a stretch from the storyteller's memory to our collective memory, but reviewing Michael Gruber's The Book of Air and Shadows for these pages, I came across one character's intriguing (and sobering) view of memory, both personal and collective:

"He said there are three kinds of history. The first is what really happened, and that is forever lost. The second is what most people thought happened, and we can recover that with assiduous effort. The third is what the people in power wanted the future to think happened, and that is 90 percent of the history in books."

Not too many audio books are so valuable that I buy a hardback copy for my reference library. But For the Love of a Dog: Understanding Emotion in You and Your Best Friend is. Animal behaviorist and dog specialist Patricia B. McConnell explains canine feelings — love, happiness, fear, aggression and grief — with clarity and heart. In her hands, science is understandable and usable. We who love dogs and want to understand them (and their expressive faces) can start here. (Tantor Media, $34.99, unabridged, 10 disks)

The Texas Pages blog, which has been sort of a secret for insiders for the past couple of weeks, is being officially unveiled this weekend. So for those of you discovering us for the first time, here's the official welcome message.

And, officially, I hope you enjoy what you find here and let us know what you think.

Michael Merschel
Books Editor

"If you've never embellished an anecdote to get a bigger laugh from your drinking companions, please stand up. If you've never lifted an emotional story from your kid brother's life or from a book you've read and then plugged it into your own narrative, you can stand up, too. If you're still sitting, stand up and join the other liars. Everybody embellishes and steals a little, and some of us do it a lot."
Read more of this excellent article by Jack Shafer in Slate on how embellishment can be so commonplace and yet so troubling when it finds its way into print under the guise of nonfiction books and journalism.

http://www.slate.com/id/2162670/

Here's a look at the books we'll be reviewing Sunday.

"Storm Warning,” by Nancy Mathis. A compelling narrative about the devastating 1999 Oklahoma tornadoes, and the history of the people who tried to predict them.

“Boomsday,” by Christopher Buckley. A satire that proposes a solution to the Social Security crisis: Have the Baby Boomers kill themselves. With an online-only excerpt.

“Cell Of Cells: The Global Race To Capture And Control The Stem Cell.” by Cynthia Fox. Everything you need to know about what may be the biggest scientific debate of our era.

“Commodore Perry’s Minstrel Show,” by Richard Wiley. A fictional look at what happened when Americans arrived in Japan.

“The End Of The World As We Know It,” by Robert Goolrick. A memoir about a horrifying Southern childhood.

Look for them in your GuideLive section, or at www.guidelive.com/books.

The DMA will feature a program with music and poetry this Saturday. Featured artists include Judith Garrett Segura, Jack Myers, Farid Matuk, Susan Briante, and Nicole Stutzman reading on my behalf. Print the image below for a discount on tickets. The program is in conjunction with the DMA's current exhibition of contemporary art Fast Forward.

Dallas Morning News critics have been following Mr. McCarthy for literally decades. Here's how we reviewed "Blood Meridian" back in 1985.

Over on "Critical Mass," the blog of the National Book Critics Circle, president (and regular Dallas Morning News reviewer) John Freeman has a link to a 1992 interview with the rarely heard-from author.

I read somewhere recently that Mr. McCarthy -- once of El Paso, late of Santa Fe -- is not all that reclusive. He just hasn't sought out the press. I wonder if the Oprah appearance signals a change.

The Texas Historical Association has given its Deolece Parmelee Award to Hollace Ava Weiner and Rabbi Kenneth D. Roseman for their book, "Lone Stars of David: The Jews of Texas," an essay collection of narratives on the history and cultures of Texas Jews.

Ms. Weiner is a Fort Worth writer.

Below are other awards given by the group:

What does J.K. Rowling have in store for her boy wizard's last adventure? Staff Potterheads Joyce Saenz Harris and Nancy Churnin batted around some theories... read on for more.

(They also uncovered the British version of the cover, at www.mugglenet.com)

Fans can now scrutinize the book jacket of "Deathly Hallows" for clues (publisher Scholastic revealed it today):

About two years ago, I had the opportunity to interview Jim Dale, the familiar narrator of the Harry Potter audiobooks. My two preteens spent many nights falling asleep to his voice, so I took a little more than the usual professional interest in this assignment. Well, I could have talked to Jim for hours. And that's just the feeling you get listening to him on the HP audio books. He's warm, down-to-earth and unhurried, the kind of guy you could spend a few hours with in a pub on a rainy day and never look at your watch.

As pointed out by Poynter Online, a piece in The New Republic (free registration required) challenges the veracity of author/radio funnyman David Sedaris (who played the Majestic last year and whose "Santaland Diaries" have become a local holiday staple.)

A piece in The News & Observer of Raleigh, N.C. asks: so what?

A suit by two authors who claimed novelist Dan Brown copied from their book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail for The Da Vinci Code has been rejected by Britain's Court of Appeal. Check out the story here.

Oprah Winfrey has chosen the post-apocalyptic "The Road" as her 57th book club pick.

The infamously reclusive author will appear on her show later this spring. Which, in itself, may be a sign of the apocalypse.

Read more below. And if you've read "The Road," let's talk: I've been amazed that a novel so bleak has been embraced by so many people. What's your take?

With March Madness and the Mavericks going strong, is there time to read a book on basketball? Definitely, but don’t worry. This is not another ponderous sermon on life from a big-time hoops coach. Snore. Imagine instead Angela's Ashes turned it into a basketball memoir. Humorous and painful — that’s Paddy on the Hardwood: A Journey in Irish Hoops (University of New Mexico Press, $24.95) by Rus Bradburd.
A successful basketball coach, Mr. Bradburd found himself with the mid-career blues. So he took a geographic cure – accepting a coaching job in the Irish basketball league. There are some great basketball programs in Europe. Alas, Ireland's not one of them. But Bradburd also played the fiddle and thought he'd learn Irish music too. His hilarious accounts of life in County Kerry and the many characters he meets makes for a great yarn.

Earlier this month, I was in Atlanta for the annual creativing writing conference sponsored by the Associated Writing Programs. (Last year's program conference was held in Austin during the SXSW Festival.) In terms of cities, I felt that there were some similarities between Atlanta and Dallas, in terms of sprawl - you need a car to get around to places that are off the beaten track (i.e. offsite events), and both have a fair number of esteemed arts institutions. Conferences are scheduled through 2013 in NY, Chicago, etc., with none slated for Dallas. I'd be curious to know how venue cities are determined and if we might ever see Dallas in that rotation.

Last year, Dallas was also overlooked on the Wave Poetry Bus Tour, though the bus stopped in Austin, Houston, and even Marfa.

As a writer that is frequently on the road, I visit many cities and come into contact with several different models for supporting the literary arts. A visit to Pittsburgh in 2004, particularly struck me. The city is one of Russell Banks' Cities of Asylum. In Pittsburgh, the city hosted Huang Xiang's poetry house. It seems that Dallas would be ripe for joining the network, given the presence of the translation institute at UTD, universities with strong English departments, and several evolving artist in residency programs such as the one at UTD and La Reunion.

"The Looming Tower" by the Texas author has picked up another award, this time from Investigative Reporters & Editors.

(Photo by LOUIS DeLUCA/Staff Photographer)

He was in Dallas recently, and the story about his work is below. But if you've read "Looming Tower," tell us -- why do you think it works?

NEXT-ON-DECK: Writers in the Universities
THURSDAY, MARCH 29
OPENING BELL
1409 S. LAMAR
FREE/DONATION
7:00 P.M.

Frank Garrett, Lauren Dixon, and David Hadbawnik will read at WordSpace's spring program featuring writers from the universities. Frank Garrett is a writer, composer and sound artist in the PhD program at the University of Texas at Dallas. Lauren Dixon is a poet and translator whose work has appeared in the online journal Superficial Flesh. She was nominated for the Best New Poets of 2006 Anthology, published by Meridian. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing-Poetry from Texas State University in San Marcos, and is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in Translation and Literary Studies at UTD. David Hadbawnik is a poet and performer whose poems and essays appear in Boog City, the Marlboro Review, Bay Poetics Anthology, The Chicago Review, and Big Bridge. His first book, SF Spleen, was published in 2006 by Skanky Possum Press. He is currently in his second year in the MFA poetry program at Texas State in San Marcos, where he is the incoming poetry editor of the program's online journal Front Porch. He is also publisher of Habenicht Press.

Today's Harry Potter nugget, courtesy AP:

The U.S. audiobook of the seventh and final Harry Potter, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” will be released July 21, the same time as the bound text, with the Grammy Award-winning Jim Dale again handling all the voices.

The Listening Library, the children’s imprint of the Random House Audio Publishing Group, announced Monday that the audio for the 784-page book will run 21 hours, and retail for $79.95. No first printing was announced, but Amanda D’Acierno, director of marketing and publicity for Random House Audio, told The Associated Press that the number would “definitely” be higher than the 635,000 announced for Potter 6, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.”

Oprah Winfrey is announcing a new book club pick this week.

Steve Levitt, author of Freakonomics, has a pair of local events tomorrow.

He'll speak at a forum for SMU and high school students from 4:30 p.m. to 5:20 p.m.
in the Hughes-Trigg Student Center Ballroom, 3140 Dyer St. (west of Airline Road).

His big lecture, formally known as (deep breath) "The TXU Electric Delivery Lecture of the Willis M. Tate Distinguished Lecture Series," is 8 p.m. in McFarlin Auditorium, 6405 Boaz Lane.

It's sold out, but maybe you can grovel at (214) 768-8283. Do they have scalpers at these things?

Many found lives changed in SMU professor Marshall Terry's class. Read more.

Leave your own comments about 'Mr. SMU.'

Mark Kriegel's biography of Pete Maravich might whet your appetite to to see the Pistol in action. Have no fear; You Tube is here. The do-it-yourself webcast site has an arsenal of Maravich highlight mixes for your amazement and enjoyment. Personal favorite: the college reel, featuring Maravich doing his showtime thing as a record-setting scorer at LSU.

Bestselling author and Arlington resident Sandra Brown has been named a recipient of the Texas Medal of Arts, awarded by the Texas Cultural Trust. Ms. Brown will be the receive of the award for Literature Arts in Austin on April 3. Details and information about other honorees can be found at www.txculturaltrust.org/

Watch for these reviews in your Sunday newspaper:

The Enlightened Bracketologist: The Final Four of Everything, edited by Mark Reiter and Richard Sandomir.
You don't have to like basketball to have fun with this one.

Pistol: The Life of Pete Maravich, by Mark Kriegel. A fresh look at a troubled sports legend.

The Segovia Chronicles, by Paul Ruffin. A longtime East Texas writer turns his attention to West Texas.

Alice Waters and Chez Panisse, by Thomas McNamee. Foodies will be delighted with this look at the restaurant revolutionary.

All that, plus more. It's in GuideLive, or online.

... about this weekend's Best Southwest Bookfest in DeSoto. You'd be hard pressed to find another literary event that puts it in the mix as much as this one: Visits with authors and playwrights, spoken word performances, workshops and a slew of activities for kids. The Irving Symphony Orchestra gives a performance Saturday afternoon, too.

If you missed Lauren Bacall at the AFI festival, you have a second chance Saturday: She’ll be signing her updated memoir, By Myself and Then Some, noon at Border’s, Preston at Royal. Call the store 214-363-1977 for details.