Texas Pages

Today on the books page, Joy Tipping chats with David Eagleman, author of Sum: Forty Views of the Afterlives, ahead of his appearance at the Dallas Museum of Art on Friday. (He's also scheduled to appear at Legacy Books on July 15.)

You can also read her review of Sum here.

And you can peruse the book here.

Willard Spiegelman remains on a roll with his Seven Pleasures: Essays on Ordinary Happiness. The folks at Legacy Books reported a solid turnout for his signing last week, and KERA's Jerome Weeks interviewed him for Think. (You can still see that here.)

We brought you a review of Clancy Martin's novel How to Sell on Sunday.

The Kansas City Star managed to pin him down for an interview. And although he's now a professor of philosophy at the University of Missouri/Kansas City, the article notes that his background does not necessarily point to such a position:

For now let's just say Martin learned the finer points of shoplifting at age 6, was kicked out of high school for a drug infraction and spent seven years in the jewelry business, where the issue of ethics apparently didn't arise much.

Newsweek tells a similar tale about him -- one that involves despair, divorce, suicidal thoughts, and salesmanship with his brother at their North Texas store:

Unlike the shop started by the brothers in the novel, the Martins' joint venture was clean ... . But the game, more or less, was the same: the process of turning a gem from a mass of matter into a narrative of possibility.

But in fictionalizing that experience, he's received widespread, often glowing, review coverage. Maybe the selling of shiny trinkets has more in common with being a successful author than we'd like to admit.

We don't get a lot of supermodels around here -- "here" being the deep, dark stacks of the books blog, that is -- so I'm pleased to say that author Paulina Porizkova gave an interview to our friends at F!D Luxe, and she actually mentioned books publicity. (She was in town to promote A Model Summer. )

So that gives us an excuse to link to her dishy tale.

She also mentioned some people named Tyra and Twiggy and a TV show called America's Next Top Model. Ever hear of it? Like I said, we don't get out of the stacks much these days.

(Photo by LARA SOLT/Staff Photographer)

People think there's something funny about my colleague Matt Wixon. As in, funny ha-ha, not funny strange. Usually.

As proof, he has a new book out: The Great American Staycation: How to Make a Vacation at Home Fun for the Whole Family (and Your Wallet!).

When he told me about the book, I asked him to relate some thoughts about lousy stay-at-home vacations. He responded:

There are two main causes of a horrible stay-at-home vacation:

The first is the stay-at-home vacation that includes doing a lot of housework, home maintenance or filling your schedule with menial tasks that you've been putting off. In short, the worst stay-at-home vacation is the one that isn't treated somewhat like a traditional vacation, with most of the time devoted to relaxation and leisure. Taking scenic train rides, finding offbeat museums, exploring local entertainment districts, trying new restaurants, and even visiting a local spa are great potential pieces to a stay-at-home vacation. But the vacation won't be relaxing, or satisfying, if you try to weave those activities in with caulking the tub, cleaning the garage and scheduling a colonoscopy. You need to create mental distance with a stay-at-home vacation to break free from your daily grind.

Check your weekend papers or visit GuideLive.com, and we'll offer you the following:

On Saturday, Joy Tipping chats with Lisa Lutz, author of Revenge of the Spellmans, who will be appearing at Borders, Preston Road at Royal Lane, on Tuesday.

On Saturday, the books pages will look at:

Prairie Spring: A Journey Into the Heart of a Season, by Peter Dunne.

Joker One: A Marine Platoon's Story of Courage, Leadership, and Brotherhood, by Dallas resident Donovan Campbell. He'll also be speaking at Borders, on Thursday.

A Jury of Her Peers: American Women Writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx, by Elaine Showalter (pictured). You can view some samples at the Random House site.

And, just in time for baseball season: Yogi Berra, The Eternal Yankee, by Allen Barra.

In the wake of happenings in Seattle and Kansas City, I've been engaged in a lengthy e-mail exchange with that most energetic of Texas literary champions, Kathy Patrick, founder of the Pulpwood Queens Book Club.

The topic has been preserving books coverage in newspapers, to the end of promoting good books and reading overall. Yes, it's self-serving of me, considering that a newspaper employs me, in part, to provide books coverage. And I do so enjoy being employed. But bigger issues are at stake.

Kathy talked about frustrations she has had with getting some publications to cover books and authors properly. And since she leads a worldwide army of tiara-wearing, book-loving and potentially world-changing readers, I suggested she encourage them to mobilize and become actively engaged in their hometown publications.

By which I mean -- editors pay attention to their subscribers, now more than ever. The more vocal they are, the more the editors pay attention. And if people care about an aspect of their coverage, the time to be speaking up about it is before it vanishes. Readers need to be writing letters, sending e-mails and, yes, commenting on blogs when they see something they like, or don't like.

They don't need to be cheerleaders. But if they care, they should not be passive.

Again, this is not about me, nor should it be read as having anything to do with any plans I know of here in Dallas. This is one lover of books talking to another, and encouraging others to do something in their own communities.

So to that end, I agreed to open a thread for discussing other ideas for keeping books coverage healthy and boosting reader participation. Your comments are welcome.

(And here is a plug for the infectiously enthusiastic Kathy, the only person I know who runs a beauty shop as a way to support a book store: She is bringing Note to Self author Andrea Buchanan to Jefferson for a new lecture series called "Arts Letters and Soul." It happens 7 p.m. April 13th at Soul Surroundings, 121 North Polk, Jefferson. Tickets are $30. Kathy's contact info is here.)

(2007 file photo of Kathy Patrick by Richard Michael Pruitt)

I first heard about Thomas Cahill's A Saint on Death Row (which is reviewed today on GuideLive.com) from the author when he visited Dallas a year ago.

Here's an overview of his lecture, with a separate post about how the book's subtitle came about. And here's an interview conducted by Bill Marvel ahead of time. (Bill's review of The Lost City of Z also appears today.)

If you're interested in Saint on Death Row, the publisher's Web site posted this YouTube video about Dominique Green, the subject of Cahill's book.

Recently, we brought you a review of American Rust, which Philipp Meyer began while he was attending the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin.

The Baltimore Sun fills us in his personal struggles in this profile. The onetime high school dropout did not take a direct path to literary glory, although he seems to have arrived.

"One day, I'm this little punk kid," he says, "and the next day, I'm a published author and I know that I'll be able to pay my bills and keep writing. It felt incredible."

And it notes that his next novel is going to be set in Texas.

Elizabeth Gilbert is speaking at Arts & Letters Live tonight. In this interview, she recalls Stern Men, the recently reissued tale of feuding lobstermen that's being reissued. She says it's made her both wistful for a less complicated writing life and grateful that "a rising tide lifts all boats."

"There's something sort of sweet about it. It was out of print, so now I'm seeing this thing that I really thought was finished, and seeing extra life breathed into it."

William Paul Young is speaking in Dallas this evening; here's a Q&A with the author of The Shack.

Historian James M. McPherson, who has won just about every history-writing award worth winning, will be in town Wednesday and Thursday for a pair of hard-to-get-into events. (Seating is first come, first served at The Writers Studio; and his World Affairs Council/Authorspeak talk is sold out.)

I caught up with him yesterday between speaking engagements -- no mean task, since he's been on the road almost nonstop, he says, since October, when Tried by War: Lincoln as Commander in Chief was released. He also released a mini-biography, Abraham Lincoln.

I asked him about the mystique, relevance and best current books about the man. Here are some excerpts from the interview.

You probably get this a lot, but it has to be asked: What is it about Lincoln?

Three things I think. He leads the Union to victory, but then is martyred at the very moment of victory.
The second thing is the Emancipation Proclamation, the abolition of slavery, one of the great events, I suppose, in American history from several perspectives.
And the third I think is just the unlikely, log-cabin-to-White House, rags-to-riches, obscurity-to-fame-to-tragedy trajectory of his life.
There's nobody else quite like that I think in our history who appeals on several levels of fascination, curiosity, horror.
...
Also, Lincoln did not keep a diary. A lot of his letters, especially his personal letters to his wife, and hers to him, were destroyed. So there are some mysteries about Lincoln. What was the real Lincoln? What was the inner life of Abraham Lincoln, to quote one of the titles of a book about Lincoln? That creates an opportunity for all kinds of speculation and interpretation on just precisely what kind of man was he.
He suffered from depression -- there's a book about that. There's a book about his sexuality -- more than one about his sexuality. He's damned from the libertarian right for his role in creating the Leviathan government and the imperial presidency, and he's sometimes damned from the left for being too slow to move against slavery. So he's been the subject of controversy and criticism from multiple directions, some of them exactly polar opposites of each other. And I think all of that accounts for the continuing outpouring of books about him, biographical and otherwise.

To reiterate what Ann Pinson said, Wally Lamb was just marvelous last night at First Presbyterian Church. He was there as part of the Dallas Museum of Art's fabulous 2009 lineup for its Arts & Letters Live Series. What a boon for book lovers in this town -- if you haven't seen this year's schedule -- Ian McEwan! Elizabeth Gilbert! David Sedaris! -- you owe it to yourself to check it out, and reserve your tix early. More than 450 fans turned out to see Lamb.

I was so impresed with Lamb's humility, warmth and intelligence -- a combination that is all too rarely seen among authors with his kind of numbers (he is, after all, one of the few authors to make the Oprah book club twice). Last night, he read from an autobiographical essay and then read a very moving piece from his new book, The Hour I First Believed. I was fascinated with how he "hears" his characters; he said the first line that Caelum, the new book's protagonist, spoke to him was: "My mother was a convicted felon, a manic-depressive, and Miss Rheingold Beer of 1950." From that, the book was born.

Also loved his stories about some of the reader mail he receives, like the letter where someone asked him if there was going to be an all-woman Mt. Rushmore, who would he put there? I think we all expected him to say Oprah. But no: "The only one I'm absolutely sure of is Aretha Franklin." On that, Wally, we're totally with you.

Click to see our review of the new book, and our recent interview with Lamb.

I saw Wally Lamb at Arts & Letters Live last night, and he was incredibly warm, kind and engaging. I know Joy Tipping is planning a post about his appearance, so I'll stay away from most of it. But one thing I thought was really cool was that there's a playlist (scroll down when you get to the link) of the songs he was listening to when he wrote his latest, The Hour I First Believed.

Right away, I was wondering if he'd have any Conor Oberst on there, since Lamb mentioned his affinity for contemporary songwriters. Sure enough, there's "At the Bottom of Everything" from old Bright Eyes himself. It just makes me like him more.

The online newsletter Publishers Lunch reports that Dallas resident Kathleen Kent, author of the best-selling The Heretic's Daughter, has sold her second book, again to Reagan Arthur Books/Little, Brown. It's called The Giant of Edgehill, and is a dramatic love story set during the English civil war and early colonial America.

When I interviewed Ms. Kent earlier this year, she talked a little about the new book, which is based on an ancestor of hers who was rumored to have been the executioner of England's Charles I before coming to America in the 1600s. PW doesn't give an ETA for Edgehill.

Here's our review and interview with Ms. Kent, if you want to catch up.

Fran Vick is well-known in literary circles as president of the Texas State Historical Association and the former president of the Texas Institute of Letters.

And now, she's known as the editor behind Literary Dallas, which is reviewed today in Guide Sunday and on GuideLive.

She answered a few questions about the anthology via e-mail.

What surprised you most in the compiling of this book?

How much material there was out there. I was still finding things after I turned in the already large manuscript. There are some Dallas writers who are not in here and should be and I apologize for that. I ran out of time and also out of space.

Did your opinion of Dallas as a literary town change during the process? How do you think Dallas stacks up, in a literary sense, against other Texas cities?

No. I already knew this was a literary town. You cannot live here and not know it. We have also sent many writers out of here that other cities and states claim, such as Billie Lee Brammer. He is known as an Austin writer and the subject of The Gay Place is Austin, but Oak Cliff produced him. He is a Dallas boy, born and raised and educated at the University of North Texas.

With the awards ceremony just a few hours away, here's our look at authors and poets with Texas ties: Annette Gordon-Reed, Kathi Appelt, Reginald Gibbons and Mark Doty.

Check back later this evening for a list of winners.

Ed Nawotka caught up with Michael Dirda ahead of his appearance this weekend at the Texas Book Festival. You can read the entire interview here.

As someone whose job is somewhat tied to words on pages, I was especially heartened by this observation from Mr. Dirda, who has been to his share of book events:

"The country has a lot more readers than we realize. When I've gone to festivals, I've seen people from all walks of life, ages and backgrounds. There does seem to be a real enthusiasm for books that we sometimes forget about. What's more, there often is a little something for everybody at such things, so it's a great day out."

Amen, brother. I'm looking forward to soaking in that atmosphere myself.

If you're one of those readers who will be in Austin this weekend -- let's hear what you're looking forward to. And if you're not able to make it this year -- check back on the blog all weekend. I hope to have it filled with nuggets of wisdom. Or at least a photo or two.

The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life is one of the biggest biographies of the season, and it has a Texas tie: Author Alice Schroeder is a Highland Park High alum.

She speaks extensively with columnist Cheryl Hall about how the book came about, and about the appeal of the Oracle of Omaha. To wit, the author says:

"He became a very interesting puzzle for me to solve, He thinks rich people should pay taxes. He grew up in a very conservative, Republican family, yet he became quite liberal in his political views. He really does live this simple, almost austere life, and yet he's something of a jetsetter."

The whole story is here.

As spotted by Jerome Weeks on Art&Seek, Malcolm Gladwell uses Dallas' Ben Fountain to anchor a New Yorker story about the nature of genius -- and the difference between the young and old variety.

Or is he using a discussion about the nature of genius to anchor a profile of Mr. Fountain?

In any case, the article explains that Mr. Fountain's success was the product of a lot of sweat --
his breakthrough with Brief Encounters With Che Guevara came in 2006, 18 years after he quit his job as a lawyer -- making him an emerging talent at age 48.

This puts him in some fairly respectable company, as Mr. Gladwell lumps him in with the likes of Mark Twain, Alfred Hitchcock, Paul Cezanne and others who produced their masterworks in their 40s, 50s or later. He notes:

On the road to great achievement, the late bloomer will resemble a failure: while the late bloomer is revising and despairing and changing course and slashing canvases to ribbons after months or years, what he or she produces will look like the kind of thing produced by the artist who will never bloom at all. Prodigies are easy. They advertise their genius from the get-go. Late bloomers are hard. They require forbearance and blind faith. (Let's just be thankful that Cézanne didn't have a guidance counsellor in high school who looked at his primitive sketches and told him to try accounting.)

The story also pays tribute to another Dallas figure responsible for Ben's success --- his wife, Sharon, who enabled his efforts. Ben's comments about her at the end of the piece should cement his reputation as being not only the brightest literary light in Dallas, but also the most humble.

Our interview with Garrison Keillor appears in today's Guide Daily and on GuideLive.

For those who missed it, our review of Liberty can be found there as well.

For those who want tickets to tonight's appearance, follow this link.

For those who disagreed with his comments about Dallas, the "comments" button is right down there. \/

It's a busy weekend -- here's what's in store:

First, print readers will find a new name atop their section: Guide Sunday. (Online readers, you'll still find all our book reviews here on GuideLive. )

On the cover, look for an interview with Anne Rice, as she discusses her new memoir Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession. The Interview With a Vampire author talks about her faith, the rediscovery of her faith and the significant portion of her life she spent in North Texas.

Inside, on the books pages, look for reviews of:

I See You Everywhere, by Julia Glass
Liberty, by Garrison Keillor (and check back on Tuesday for an interview with him ahead of his appearance in Dallas.)
Supreme Courtship, by Christopher Buckley
Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men, by Michael Kimmel
Happy Families, by Carlos Fuentes

And you can read all about Candace Bushnell, whose new work is One Fifth Avenue, in this interview.

She's recording with the Writers Studio. Ticket info is here.

After reading this weekend's story about Gustavo Arellano by Lesley Tellez, I was eager to find out whether an entertaining shouting match might break out at his signing Saturday.

I turned to Lesley for a report. She tells me:

"No violence. It was actually a pretty adoring crowd -- great turnout, standing room only, into the aisles of the bookstore.

"Gustavo told the audience about the email at the beginning of the reading, and he urged everyone to get his back (i.e., be his bodyguard) if a random guy in red, white and blue showed up. Luckily no one did. I do know they only had three or four copies of Ask a Mexican, and those sold out quickly. A lot of people bought Orange County books.

"He was really funny in person. He took questions from the audience about the Cesar Chavez naming debate (which he didn't know much about, but he didn't appear to like what he heard), and he read a question from Ask a Mexican that originated in Dallas. (Something funny and clever about how hard it is to be a "brotha" in Oak Cliff, where all the fried catfish joints are now taquerias.)

"Most of the time he talked about the Orange County book.

"I enjoyed it. It was a good reading."

From the pages of today's GuideLive: Jewell Parker Rhodes talks about what she learned from voodoo priestess Marie Laveau.

The author is just one of many appearing this weekend at Tulisoma, the South Dallas Book Fair & Arts Festival.

In today's GuideLive, we had a review of Stephanie Elizondo Griest's latest novel, Mexican Enough.

Read a bit more about the 34-year-old author, who grew up in South Texas and attended the University of Texas, in this interview with Quick's Lesley Tellez.

From our features editor, Cathy Barber:

Christy Rost was motivated by a kitchen redo of a house in Colorado. She survived the renovation in fine culinary style -- so fine, in fact, that she rounded up her tips and recipes and wrote Where's My Spatula? Fast, Healthy Meals for When Your Kitchen or Your Life Is a Mess.

Longtime local cooking teacher Karel Anne Tieszen of Duncanville also has a new book, this one compiling student favorites from her classes. Check out In Your Own Kitchen.

How nice to have so many author events happening that I haven't even been able to blog about them all.

Here's hoping you caught Lesley Tellez's interview with Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez earlier this week. The author was in town to promote Dirty Girls on Top, a sequel to her best-seller The Dirty Girls Social Club.

At the other end of the week, if not the spectrum of literary lights, N. Scott Momaday is headed to the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Writers Conference.. Karen M. Thomas interviewed him about his career.