Texas Pages

Tracy Chevalier, author of the best-selling Girl With a Pearl Earring, utterly captivated the crowd at tonight's Arts & Letters Live event at the Dallas Museum of Art, talking mostly about her latest book, Burning Bright, which uses poet-painter William Blake as a key character. About 400 fans, many clutching multiple copies of her books for the after-event signing, filled the Horchow Auditorium ... what a wonderful sight, to see that many lovers of great literature all soaking it in together.

Ms. Chevalier's talk was all-around delightful, but I was particularly taken with her "top three reasons art inspires her" list:
1) Great art has the effect of forcing her to slow down, to look at things in a more contemplative manner than our hectic society usually allows.
2) As a mostly verbal person, she enjoys the challenge of taking something nonverbal, i.e., a piece of art, and making it into something verbal via her novels.
3) Paintings give us the middle of a story, always bringing the questions of what happened just before, and just after, the scene the artist chose to depict -- and that's where her novels come in.

That's a lovely, succinct summation of what makes great art "great," and what makes Tracy Chevalier such a remarkable writer.

Two quick notes from the Writer's Garret before we go into radio silence while software is updated:

First, enjoy a free discussion on "Satire & African American Literature" with SMU's Darryl Dickson-Carr 1 p.m. Sunday at Paperbacks Plus, 6115 La Vista Dr. Sun., March 2

Second, if you would like half-off tickets to see Kimberla Lawson Roby with The Writers Studio on Wednesday, call Theatre Three ( 214-871-3300, option 1) by noon Monday. Use code 50KR08 .

Pick up your paper Sunday, or visit GuideLive.com, and you'll find reviews of:

A pair of El Paso authors. John Rechy, whose work was considered scandalous in the 1960s, has written a memoir, "About My Life and the Kept Woman." And Benjamin Alire Saenz, a former priest who now leads the creative writing program at the University of Texas-El Paso, has a new novel about a family dealing with assimilation, "Names on a Map." (Visit the blog Sunday for an excerpt of that one.)

"American-Made: The Enduring Legacy of the WPA -- When FDR Put the Nation Back to Work," by Nick Taylor.

"Artists in Exile: How Refugees from Twentieth-Century War and Revolution Transformed the American Performing Arts," by Joseph Horowitz.

And the aforementioned "Beautiful Children," a novel by Charles Bock. (Which is a free download for another few hours.... )

“I find it devastating to contemplate the possibility of such a severe alteration of author-fan relations.”

That's J.K. Rowling, speaking in court documents about a fan she once praised but now is suing for trying to publish a Harry Potter reference book.

(Tip to aspiring authors: If you are worried about relations with your fans ... don't sue them.)

Mark Gimenez, L. A. Starks, and Bill Manchee will be appearing from 6:30 to 8:30 tonight at the Arlington Central Library, 101 East Abram Street, to discuss their books and the art of writing a mystery.

L.A., a regular poster on Texas Pages, sends a flier that dubs this event "A Date Night with Crime." Which sounds a lot better than "Date Night With a Bag of Lawn Fertilizer." Which, given the weather forecast, is probably what's in my own future.

Maybe I'll find a good book instead.

The site One-Minute Book Reviews will be announcing its shortlist for the Delete Key awards -- which "do not recognize the worst books' but the worst writing in books (typically, individual lines or paragraphs)."

Among the nominees is the Texas-based Devil in the Junior League.

(On a kinder note, a story about the book from our archives is attached below.)

Authors Jo Barrett ("This Is How it Happened (Not a Love Story)"), and Lisa Landolt ("Good Man Hunting") had been scheduled to appear 2 p.m. Saturday at Borders, Lovers Lane at Greenville Avenue.

Turns out, it will be a solo gig for Ms. Landolt: Ms. Barrett is being rescheduled.

Tracy Chevalier talks about the changing nature of her audiences in an interview with Joy Tipping. Chevalier's 2007 novel "Burning Bright" has been attracting fans of the subject, William Blake:

"There's quite a few men who really love Blake, I've discovered, and they're always easy to spot," she says. "They'll usually be sporting a beard, looking a little eccentric themselves, of like minds with Blake. And they always ask some persnickety little detail about him. The women love it; we all giggle together when that happens."

Fans of whatever gender will find her at Arts & Letters Live tomorrow night.

That Oprah -- she sure can move books.

The Associated Press notes that since she announced Eckhart Tolle's “A New Earth” as her next book club pick, it has been "the fastest-selling pick ever" at Barnes & Noble Inc.

Full story below.

Is under way. As mentioned earlier, Shin Yu Pai is speaking this very moment; a few additional details are posted here.

Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson will be in town April 16, much to the delight of the state's librarians.

That's because the pair, co-authors of "Peter and the Starcatchers," will be appearing at the Texas Library Association conference at the Dallas Convention Center that week.

Other authors attending include Rosemary Wells, Elizabeth Noble, Kathy Patrick and first daughter Jenna Bush.

Now, the fee schedule for this conference would baffle even those of you who memorized the Dewey Decimal system as a child. (Don't play dumb -- I know you're out there.) I did contact organizers and asked whether members of the general public could attend and was told, yes: "If the author you are interested in is signed up to be in the authors area then an exhibits only badge is sufficient. If the author is a speaker at one of our sessions or programs then that you will need an attendee badge and possibl[y] purchase a ticket if they are speaking at a meal function."

If I can get clarification on that, I will post it.

Meanwhile, perhaps you could also sneak in as a ringer on a bookcart drill team. (I always knew those librarians had dark secrets about what they did in the stacks after the doors were locked.)

Here's a more complete version of the obituary for William F. Buckley.

Random House is offering free downloads of "Beautiful Children" by Charles Bock until Friday.

Is it worth your time? Here's a sneak peek at a review schedueld for Sunday's print edition. (Which, unlike the free download, will not expire at 12:01 a.m.)

The AP has just reported that author and conservative commentator William F. Buckley Jr. has died at age 82.

Details to follow.

Over at the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture, there's still time to sign up for next month's series on Henry David Thoreau. The description:

This series will focus on two famous works by Henry David Thoreau: "Civil Disobedience", published in 1849 and taken to heart by such figures as Gandhi and the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., and "Walden", Thoreau's account of going to the New England woods to discover "the essential facts of life" continues to resonate with urban readers who sense the possibility of a life, simpler and more natural, that the pace of the city scarcely allows.

The class runs Wednesdays, 5:30-7 p.m., March 5 through 26. Cost is $70 for members, $85 for nonmembers, $25 for teachers. Call 214-871-2440.

Yes, the Stars goalie is making a books-related appearance: As the spokesperson for “Stick with Reading,” an initiative of the Dallas Stars Foundation, he'll appear from 2 to 3 p.m. Sunday at Half Price Books, 5803 E. Northwest Highway, to celebrate what would have been Dr. Seuss' 104th birthday.

The store promises kids a free “Cat in the Hat” striped hat and autographed Marty Turco card while supplies last. Kids also are encouraged to bring in a new or gently used children’s book for the Half Pint Library book drive, which benefits Our Children’s House at Baylor.

Anne Rice tells TIME magazine that she has one more Lestat book left in her -- and she'll get around to writing it right after she finishes writing about the life of Jesus Christ:

...the second novel in that saga, Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana, comes out March 4. She plans to write a third installment in that series before tackling what she now claims to be her final vampire book. For a prolific author who writes a book approximately every 15 months, that means it may be at least another three years before we once again see blood dripping off her pages.

Mrs. Rice, for those who don't know, has Texas connections. She met her late husband, the poet and painter Stan Rice, when they were on the student newspaper staff at Richardson High. She attended college in Denton, and she and Mr. Rice also were married there while they were still university students, before moving to San Francisco.

From The Associated Press:

NEW YORK— The collected short stories of Australia's David Malouf and a fictionalized tribute to Charles Dickens set in the South Pacific were among the finalists announced Tuesday for the 12th annual Kiriyama Prize, given for books that promote “greater understanding” of South Asia and the Pacific Rim.
Awards will be given for fiction and nonfiction works, with winners dividing $30,000 between them. (If a winner is a book in translation, the author receives $10,000, the translator $5,000). Stories about Australia, Sri Lanka, China and India were among those nominated.
In fiction, finalists besides Malouf's “Complete Stories” include Lloyd Jones' “Mister Pip,” in which Dickens' “Great Expectations” inspires a young girl on Bougainville Island, off the coast of Papua New Guinea; Nicole Mones' “The Last Chinese Chef”; Roma Tearne's “Mosquito”' and Zhu When's “I Love Dollars,” translated by Julia Lovell.
The nonfiction choices were Tom Bissell's “The Father of All Things,” a memoir by a Vietnam veteran's son; Liza Dalby's “East Wind Melts the Ice”; Ramachandra Guha's “India After Gandhi”; Susan Mann's “The Talented Women of the Zhang Family”; and Julia Whitty's “The Fragile Edge.”
Winners will be announced April 1.
The awards are sponsored by Pacific Rim Voices, a nonprofit organization “dedicated to celebrating literature that contributes to greater understanding of and among the peoples and nations of the Pacific Rim and South Asia.”

Here's a quick look at authors appearing on KERA-FM's "Think" this week:

Today, noon: Michael Scheuer, "Marching Toward Hell: America and Islam after Iraq."

Thursday, noon: Willie Brown, "Basic Brown: My Life and Our Times." (Here's our review.)

I know that a few of you readers are not in Texas -- as a true Texan might say, to your great misfortune. Some of you even hail from New York. Which we hear is somehow involved in the book business.

Which is why I post this story from your hometown paper, The New York Times. It describes the difficulties the candidates face in campaigning across Texas, which is, you might have heard, big.

This will not be news to local readers. But perhaps an outsider's perspective will benefit everyone here. You see, I've crossed paths with more than one book publicist who, when booking author tours, has decided to bypass Dallas on the grounds that they are already sending an author to Austin. Which is sort of like bypassing New York because you're already visiting Boston.

(Heck, I know people in Dallas who think Plano might as well be in Canada. But that's another matter entirely.)

The point is -- we like visitors. And we like Austin (for the most part.) We just don't consider authors who come to Austin to be our visitors.

Look, here's a map. Call me if you have questions.

Here are some of the tempting literary morsels available this week:

* Remember Me, by Sophie Kinsella (The Dial Press, $25). From the author of the hugely popular Shopaholic tales, featuring an amnesiac heroine who wakes up to find it’s not still 2004, and her train-wreck life has been replaced by surprising bliss.

* Betrayal, by John Lescroart (Dutton, $26.95). His 10th thriller featuring district attorney Dismas Hardy, this time on the case of a missing lawyer … with threads that lead to Iraq and a possible U.S. government conspiracy.

* The ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia, Fifth Edition, by Gary Gillette (Sterling, $24.95). All you need to know about America’s favorite pastime, including stats and essays in an amazingly in-depth tome.

* Friend of the Devil, by Peter Robinson (William Morrow, $24.95). The 17th suspense novel to feature DCI Alan Banks (after 2006's Piece of My Heart). Here, Banks and his on-again-off-again partner and lover, Detective Inspector Annie Cabbot, race to piece together a string of brutal murders.

* God’s Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question -- Why We Suffer, by Bart D. Ehrman (HarperOne, $25.95). Mr. Ehrman, a University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill religion professor, digs beneath the standard theological answers.

* His Panic: Why Some Americans Fear Hispanics in the U.S., by Geraldo Rivera (Celebra, $24.95). The journalist examines the growth of the Hispanic population in the U.S., fueled partly by what may be the single most divisive issue in America today: illegal immigration.

* Honor Thyself, by Danielle Steel (Delacorte Press, $27). A world-renowned actress falls victim to a terrifying explosion in Paris, beginning a journey of survival, memory and self-discovery.

* Losing It: And Gaining My Life Back One Pound at a Time, by Valerie Bertinelli (Free Press, $26). Former teenage star (One Day at a Time) and cocaine-abusing rock ’n’ roll wife (she’s divorced from Eddie Van Halen) tells her story.

* Outlaw Demon Wails, by Kim Harrison (Eos, $24.95). The sixth in her series about red-headed Cincinnati witch Rachel Morgan.

* Your Child’s Strengths: Discover Them, Develop Them, Use Them, by Jenifer Fox (Viking, $24.95). Educator Jenifer Fox focuses on adaptability and creative thinking, rather than “fixing” kids’ weaknesses to improve academic performance.

I mentioned last week that Robert Pinsky was coming to town, and was hoping to link to some of his just-discontinued Poet's Choice columns in The Washington Post.

You can click on that link and find an entertaining poetry selection ("Country-Western Singer" by Alan Shapiro,) and also an example of an absolutely miserable reading experience.

Why?

(From Dance Halls & Dreamers)

• Review: Pat Green's book sings praises of Texas dance halls
• Blog: Sons of Hermann on danced-out Texas dance hall list
• More info: dancehallsanddreamers.com

With Cormac McCarthy's book-turned-movie the big winner last night at the Oscars, I thought I'd dip into the archive to see what we said when the book was new. Here's the story from the July 17, 2005 editions of The Dallas Morning News:

Here's an excerpt from "Enemy's Cradle," by Sara Young. It's reviewed today in GuideLive.

This just in ... or at least, just discovered in my mailbox:

Robert Pinsky, former U.S. Poet Laureate and recent author of the well-received Gulf Music, will speak 7:30 p.m. March 5 at Temple Emanu-El, 8500 Hillcrest Ave.

With Billy Collins appearing at Collin County Community College at 7 p.m. Wednesday, it's a rather glorious season for poetry fans.

On a more expected note, here's a look at what we'll have in store for you Sunday in GuideLive:

Before you pop the popcorn and make your final Oscar pool picks, get a dose of real Hollywood history with “Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood,” by Mark Harris, and some fictional fun with “Oscar Season,” by Mary McNamara.

Legendary politician Willie Brown will be in Dallas on Thursday. Learn about him in “Basic Brown: My Life and Our Times.”

"My Enemy’s Cradle," by Sara Young, brings a Nazi breeding program to light. (Watch for an excerpt on the blog Sunday.)

Plus -- Si Dunn takes a look at recent Texas and Southwest titles.