Texas Pages

I grew up in an all-American, church-going, Defense Department-subsidized (via my dad's aerospace job) household. But I have never been able to generate the enthusiasm for war that usually comes naturally to my demographic.

I think some of it comes from growing up in the post-Vietnam 1970s. Nobody I knew wanted to play "U.S. vs. Viet Cong" in the woods near my house. Not when some of us had relatives who had served and refused to talk about it -- or sported more visible, physical wounds.

We did sometimes play World War II. I carried a wooden rifle with one golden bullet that was permanently ready to fire. The cooler kids had plastic M-16s with orange tips that RATATATATATATATed when you pulled the trigger. We threw pine cones as hand grenades. Usually we played Americans vs. Nazis. Even under those circumstances, I was adamant that the bad guys not be called "Germans," because my own non-Nazi relatives had been in Germany during the war. Faceless "Nazis" made a great enemy; "Germans" were real people I did not want to see die, or demonized, even if we were just throwing pine cones.

But for all that, I have remained fascinated with the military experience. So for Memorial Day, here are a few books that have stuck with me. They are served up mostly as a prompt to encourage you to suggest your own.

Mugglenet.com notes that Scholastic, J.K. Rowling's American publisher, plans a special edition of the first Harry Potter book this September, to signify the 10th anniversary of the first U.S. edition of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

Illustrator Mary Grandpre has created new front and back cover designs for the anniversary edition. See them here.

Here's a sneak peek at what you'll be reading about poolside with your copy of GuideLive (or your laptop, if you prefer to stay inside):

So Brave, Young, and Handsome, by Leif Enger: A Western that mixes classic and unexpected elements. Watch for an excerpt here on Sunday.

City of Thieves, by David Benioff: Drama amid the siege of Leningrad.

The Pixar Touch, by David A. Price: The story behind the creators of Toy Story and other modern classics of animation.

Napoleon: The Path to Power by Philip Dwyer: Separating truth from myth in the story of Napoleon's ascent.

Plus -- Si Dunn's roundup of Texas and Southwest Books.

Hey, it works for farmers!

Thomas McGonigle, a contributor to the Jacket Copy blog at the Los Angeles Times, has a modest proposal to clear the literary air in America: Have George Soros pay established, stuck-in-a-rut writers to hang it up.

"If anyone doubts the benefits of my proposal just step back and think of the small pleasure knowing that there are no more novels from Saul Bellow and Susan Sontag! No more short stories from Raymond Carver!"

It's not a bad idea, although Mr. McGonigle's list of nominees includes just about every known writer, plus every unknown writer working for a university. Plus certain entire genres.

Which would certainly give me a lot more free time.

Still, I would have chosen a narrower target.

Such as, say, memoirs by people under 40.

Got any nominees of your own?