Texas Pages

The Collin Colleges Honors Institute just announced that it will feature poet Billy Collins 7 p.m. Feb. 27 at the Spring Creek Campus Conference Center, 2800 Spring Creek Parkway in Plano. It's free. Call the institute at 972-881-5120 for details.

As scholar in residence, he'll be spending some time in classrooms and meeting with honors students during his visit as well.

Mr. Collins, a former U.S. poet laureate, last delighted Dallas audiences in person in 2004, when he appeared with Arts & Letters Live. Here's a story that ran at that time:

Daniel Menaker, former Random House exec, long-time New Yorker fiction editor and novelist (The Old Left) has an online book-chat venture in the works. Looks promising. The first discussion, in March, features novelist Richard Price, who also writes for HBO's The Wire, one of those great shows watched by TV critics and almost nobody else. Details from the New York Times.

Tess O’Flaherty, author of Gned The Knowledgeable Gnome, will be signing books 2 p.m. Saturday at Barnes and Noble, Park and Preston, in Plano.

In case you missed it, Mayra Montero’s reading at the Latino Cultural Center last week was pretty interesting. Only about 10 people showed up. Montero, who is Cuban by birth but now lives in Puerto Rico, read from her newest novel, Son de Almendra (English: Dancing to Almendra). It’s set in 1950s Cuba, during a time when many American Mafia leaders — including Meyer Lansky — were living in Havana.

I had no idea that even happened (perhaps I should have paid attention more in history class), and that alone was interesting enough on its own. But the book is a love story, too. And a thriller. The meat of the novel follows a young reporter as he tries to solve the murder of Albert Anastasia, a real-life mafioso who died in New York in 1959.

The snippet Montero read was set in the Tropicana, the famous Cuban cabaret. One of the book’s protagonists, a one-armed former circus performer named Yolanda, had just met the love of her life: A Cuban choreographer with leprosy named Roderico “Rodney” Neyra. (Circus performer? Leprosy? Yes, it’s all in here.) Like Anastasia, Rodney was a real person, too. Montero weaves fact and fiction throughout the entire thing. She's a journalist in Puerto Rico, in addition to being a novelist.

I think everyone in the crowd bought books.

To read Amazon reviews of Dancing to Almendra, go here.

The debate about "Long Way Gone" author Ishmael Beah has been simmering for a while. (See GalleyCat for blow-by-blow accounts.) Now The Associated Press has spoken with the author, who is standing by what he wrote.

Mr. Beah was in Dallas last year to promote the book. Here's a link to the story that was written then, as well as the online chat he did from our offices.

Here's the AP story:

Her 61st Oprah's Book Club selection is: "A New Earth" by Eckhart Tolle.

"It was an awakening for me that I want for you, too," her press release says.

Hilel Itale of The Associated Press writes:

Tolle, whose other books include “The Power of Now” and “Stillness Speaks,” is a native of Germany who now lives in Vancouver, British Columbia. According to his Web site, he advocates “transcending our ego-based state of consciousness” as a “prerequisite not only for personal happiness but also for the ending of violent conflict endemic on our planet.”

The choice marks something of a departure for Winfrey after reviving her book club in 2002 with an emphasis on “classics,” such as John Steinbeck’s “East of Eden” and William Faulkner’s “As I Lay Dying.” Since then, she has chosen a number of contemporary novels, including Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road,” “The Pillars of Earth” and Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s “Love in the Time of Cholera,” as well as Sidney Poitier’s memoir, “The Measure of a Man.”

So you're dying to dive into a sleazy, steamy new title from your favorite romance author, but you don't want the other coaches on the wrestling team bus to think poorly of your literary taste?

Alert reader Bill Marvel discovered a product that just might save the day.

Joel Zeff, the local author of "Make the Right Choice: Creating a Positive, Innovative and Productive Work Life" will be featured on CNBC's "The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch" at 9 p.m. this evening, and again at midnight.

Joel was the subject of a profile by columnist Cheryl Hall (attached below.) And those of us who knew him in his previous life as a journalist recall that he once played a mean harmonica.

For those of you who missed Sunday's paper, here's what we had. (You can still see the reviews, of course, on GuideLive.com):

Staff Critic Chris Vognar took a look at several recent efforts to mock racism using mock racism, including A Practical Guide to Racism.

Leading off the books pages was a look at "Flann O'Brien: The Complete Novels." (Illustration by SCOTT LAUMANN/Special Contributor)

We also had:

"Freedom for the Thought That We Hate: Tales of the First Amendment," by Anthony Lewis.

"Rostropovich: The Musical Life of the Great Cellist, Teacher and Legend, " by Elizabeth Wilson.

"Gulf Music," by poet Robert Pinsky.

And "Dogface," by Jeff Garigliano.

Oscar Hijuelos is busy with two new books, says The Associated Press:

Chips? Check. Gallon of guac? Check. List of football-themed books to read to prepare for the Super Bowl?

Readers at Shelf Awareness have compiled a few ideas. I've copied below -- while I solicit your suggestions. Here are a couple of titles mentioned in our own pages to prime the pump:

"Twelve Mighty Orphans: The Inspiring True Story of the Mighty Mites Who Ruled Texas Football," by Jim Dent.

"The Blind Side," by Michael Lewis, a look inside the world of an immense -- and immensely talented -- high school athlete. Our critic said, "Mr. Lewis is a terrific reporter and a gifted prose stylist. He absorbs the vibrations of the world he immerses himself in without getting carried away."

And, of course, the just-published "Greatest Team Ever," which Cowboys fans might want to flip through while two morally inferior teams battle for the trophy that every true Dallas resident knows is the rightful property of Jerry Jones.

(Your humble books editor, never one to hide his roots, will probably spend the afternoon searching YouTube for video footage of Super Bowl XXXII -- John Elway 31, Green Bay 24. Life was good.)

Here are some of the goodies to look forward this week:
* The Appeal, by John Grisham (Doubleday, $27.95). Mr. Grisham returns to the legal-thriller genre after three years with this story of a controversial decision against a polluting chemical company.

* Light of the Moon, by Luanne Rice (Bantam, $25). The prolific and popular Ms. Rice follows a young woman, Susannah Connolly, who is spurred by her mother’s dying wish to leave her lifelong home on the Connecticut shoreline and travel to the fabled French Camargue, to see its famous white horses and find a mysterious saint linked to her family’s history.

* Sizzle and Burn(The Arcane Society, Book 3), by Jayne Ann Krentz (Putnam, $24.95). A young woman with paranormal abilities is drawn into a dangerous situation that makes her the target of a very nasty killer.

* The Reserve, by Russell Banks (HarperCollins, $24.95). Romantic suspense set on the cusp of World War II.

* The Purrfect Murder, by Rita Mae Brown (Bantam, $25). Ms. Brown and her feline partner, Sneaky Pie Brown, return with a new mystery starring Mary Minor “Harry” Haristeen, the sleuthing cats Mrs. Murphy and Pewter, and corgi Tee Tucker.

* Temples on the Other Side: How Wisdom from “Beyond the Veil” Can Help You Right Now, by Sylvia Browne (Hay House, $25.95). Spiritual self-help from the queen of the genre.

Greetings, and it's great to be back in Dallas after spending a few days off in ... Dallas.

Associated Press

But enough about me. Let's kick off the week in blogging with some idle gossip. Alert co-worker Jerry Bokamper points out that the movie adaptation of "The Road" is listed in "pre-production" on the Hollywood site imdb.com -- and the tentative cast is kind of eye-opening.

Viggo Mortensen is cast as "father," while Charlize Theron is "wife."

Now, one way of reading this is to assume that the producers have decided that the best way to make a marketable movie about an ash-covered, post-apocalyptic world of bleak emptiness is to fill the screen with really attractive people. I mean, if any couple could take the edge of a scene of baby-roasting cannibals, it would be those two. Right?

But that's what worries me. Does casting a superstar like Theron in the role signal that the wife is getting a major profile boost in the translation from book to movie?

Associated Press

Maybe they will throw in a few product placements for good measure. (FATHER [preparing to push shopping cart down a crumbling, danger-filled road that holds death at every turn and is a possible metaphor for life itself]: "They said life's better in a Jeep (r), son -- and it would be nice to have one on this road." )

Any thoughts? Or should we just wait for them to film the thing?

A new book, A Practical Guide to Racism , written by Daily Show writer Sam Means under the name C.H. Dalton, an imaginary and clueless "racial scholar" who comes off as a turn-of-the-century academic bigot, actually makes fun of racist thinking. Practical Guide is just the latest piece of pop culture to flip racism on its ear by mocking the ignorance of its inflictors. Does this trend mark dangerous ground, sophisticated parody, or both?

Here's an excerpt from "Dogface," by Jeff Garigliano (and reviewed in GuideLive.) Copyright © 2008. Permission granted by MacAdam/Cage Publishing.

Mark your calendars -- the National Book Critics Circle and The Dallas Morning News are teaming up to present an evening of book talk 7 p.m. Feb. 12 at Barnes & Noble, 7700 W. Northwest Highway (just south of Northpark center.)

Scheduled to appear are names you know well from our books pages -- author Ben Fountain, poet Isabel Nathaniel, critic Walton Muyumba and NPR commentator Tom Dodge. Yours truly will be moderating.

More details will follow soon. Hope to see you there.

On the one hand, I'm kind of appalled at the idea of turning an old book into mere decorative material.

On the other hand, the concept reminded me that a segment of my parents' basement was done in a similar style when we moved into the house in the late 1970s. One wall was a decoupage of 1920s magazine ads; one area was papered in replicas of historic newspaper front pages -- Titanic sinks! Man walks on moon! And, poetically, from Lincoln's murder: "A TERRIBLE EVENT."

So I actually learned a lot of history from staring at that wall. (No, we did not have cable TV back then.)

I can't really speak to its decorative merits. But do you think I should consider replacing my first-grader's "Hannah Montana" posters with a wall full of Phyllis Wheatley?
(Spotted on Maud Newton's blog.)

Alert colleague Holly Warren spotted this link, to Books-a-Minute Classics, a resource for those who want to familiarize themselves with great literature without having to bother with the hassle of reading any books.

For example, here is the summary for "Don Quixote:"

Don Quixote
Chivalry demands I destroy that evil thing.

Sancho Panza
No, master. It is something ordinary and harmless.

Don Quixote
(falls down)

THE END

As an editor, I can really get into this.

Here's a terrific piece from the North Texan for fans of the John Graves classic "Goodbye to a River."

In October, to mark the the 50th anniversary of possibly the most influential canoe trip in Texas history, severall University of North Texas students and faculty re-created part of the journey.

The link contains photos and journal entries from their experience.

Here are the authors scheduled this week on the most bookish show on Dallas radio (we mean that as a compliment:)

Noon Tuesday : Bill Hayes, author of "The Anatomist: A True Story of Gray's Anatomy."

1 p.m.: Deborah Kanafani, author of "Unveiled: How an American Woman Found Her Way Through Politics, Love and Obedience in the Middle East."

1 p.m. Wednesday: Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, author of "You Don't Have to be Wrong For Me to be Right: Finding Faith Without Fanaticism."

Noon Thursday: Richard M. Cohen, author of "Strong at the Broken Places: Voices of Illness, a Chorus of Hope."

1 p.m Barbara Trepagnier, author of "Silent Racism: How Well-Meaning White People Perpetuate the Racial Divide."

I had a chance to chat with Taylor Branch and Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture director Larry Alums after Monday’s event. I asked Mr. Branch about how he found a narrative thread in the sea of compelling stories he compiled about the King years. He agreed that a lot of stories get left out of such a work -- as do characters and geography as well.

The bottom line, he said, is about “delivering the biggest payoff” for the reader.

“You’re trying to keep the faith that if the absorb pages of background on James Bevel or Diane Nash, they will be rewarded.”

He noted that he dedicated his first volume, “Parting the Waters,” to Septima Clark — because even though her conversations had been invaluable to him, her story belonged “off camera.”

Mr. Alums asked why one would tell narrative tales, then, as opposed to doing more academic-style history.

“I’m narrative because I’m freelance,” the author replied. “If I’m not read, I don’t eat."

Some other comments of note:

From a literary standpoint — which is what we’re all about here on the blog — Taylor Branch offered several lessons in his Dallas appearance Monday night. (Chris Vognar’s excellent critical take can be read in Tuesday’s GuideLive.)

Mr. Branch, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the “America in the King Years” trilogy, was keynote speaker at the Martin Luther King Jr. celebration put on by the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture. He identified that history is about the stories we remember about ourselves. “My books are storytelling history,” he said, “For one specific reason: I believe we learn from storytelling.”

And nowhere is this more important than in America, he said, for “Freedom is America’s sole story.”

Unfortunately, he said, the story of Dr. King and the civil rights era, and particularly of nonviolence, has been watered down, co-opted or lumped in with the pot-smoking madness of the Vietnam era and a period when “things went off the rails.” What little is recalled in the mass culture is mere melodrama, and the principle of nonviolence has been discarded as passé, or dismissed insultingly as “political correctness.”

He sought to tell the story anew.

Here're some of the titles we can look forward to this week:
* Duma Key, by Stephen King (Scribner, $28), chronicles Edgar Freemantle’s recovery from an accident, as he hunkers down on a beautiful but spooky section of the Florida coast. The story mirrors Mr. King’s own life-altering accident a few years ago, when a motorist hit him, and is his first book set in the part of Florida (near Sarasota) where he now spends his winters. Blaze, a King book written under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, also comes out in paperback this week (Pocket, $9.99).
* Sword Song, by Bernard Cornwell (HarperCollins, $25.95). The fourth book in Mr. Cornwell’s “Saxon Chronicles” is set in 885 in an England divided into Danish and Saxon kingdoms.
* The Secret Between Us, by Barbara Delinsky (Doubleday, $25.95), follows the aftermath of a mother’s decision to take the blame in a fatal car accident after her daughter flees the scene.
* The Great Awakening: Reviving Faith & Politics in a Post-Religious Right America, by Jim Wallis (HarperOne, $25.95), explores new solutions to moral and political conflicts in America.
* Why Mars and Venus Collide: Improving Relationships by Understanding How Men and Women Cope Differently with Stress, by John Gray (Harper, $24.95). With a subtitle that long, you hardly have to read the book.
* God’s Crucible: Islam and the Making of Europe, 570 to 1215, by David Levering Lewis (W.W. Norton, $29.95).

How about a dead-of-winter contest to perk up the brain cells?

Have you seen the clever mantra for Michael Pollan's new book, In Defense of Food?

"Eat food. Not Too Much. Mostly Plants."

A NY Times blogger invited others to distill their Deep Thoughts into just seven words. It's an idea worth copying.

Have a a look at some samples here and give it a go on any subjects you like--politics, art, diet, music, philosophy, etc.

No Prizes.* Write for Pride. Get Started.

*Unless the Books Chief wants to add one!

If you enjoyed today's review, you might be interested in the author's Web site.

(UPDATE: Link fixed.)

As always, it was a pleasure to read Judy Alter's column in this morning's DMN. What excited my particular interest in her thoughts about Robert E. Howard is that about ten years ago, a feature film called The Whole Wide World dealt with Howard's life, was made as an Indie. It was directed by Dan Ireland and written by Ireland and Benjamin Mouton, based on a book written by Novalyn Price. According to Mouton, Price, now deceased, I think, was an instructor of creative writing at LSU, and Mouton was one of her students. She gave him a copy--leather bound and privately published, of her book, and he said--that was a memoir of her association as the "friend" of Howard in Cross Plains. The film was very good, though a little rough around the financial edges, and it never did get wide release but mostly played art houses and small towns around north central Texas (I happened to see that it was playing in Abilene at one point and also in Tucson, AZ, for some reason.) It did well at Sundance, though, or so I heard. It's remarkable for a couple of reasons, not the least of which is that I think it was the first feature role for both Renee Zellweger and Vincint D'Onofrio, who were more or less unknowns at the time. I can't remember who else was in it, but I think Harve Presnell played a minor role. I know about this because Mouton holds the film option on Agatite, which they just renewed. Anyway, when I saw your column, The film is available through Netflix and Blockbuster on line and is, I believe, fairly accurate.