LONE STAR LISTENS Meet Mary Beth Rogers, Texas trailblazer In 1982 the Texas Democratic Party swept the entire slate of statewide elections, including electing a barely known Travis County commissioner as state treasurer. In one of her first acts as state treasurer, Ann Richards hired Mary Beth Rogers as deputy treasurer and the two created a department that was a model of efficiency for the entire country. Eight years later Rogers served as Richards' campaign manager--the last time a Democrat won state office. Rogers has spent a lifetime in public service and writing about public servants and trailblazers. She will be inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters in April, and we caught up with her fittingly in the month of March --primary season--to get her take on Texas politics, writing and life in the times of Trump. READ MORE | International Edible Book Festival delights foodies and bookies, April 2018 Starting in the year 2000, bibliophiles, book artists and food lovers around the world have gathered to celebrate the art of books through food. Participants create an “edible book,” which is a culinary interpretation of any book, character, literary pun, or plot. The International Edible Book Festival, scheduled each year on or after April 1 (the birthday of 18th-century French gastronome Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin), has been observed at libraries, bookstores, and cultural venues around the world. Here’s a roundup of Texas participants that we’ve found for 2018.
READ MORE. | LONE STAR REVIEWS What We Reckon From Michelle Newby's review:
"What We Reckon is the third novel from award-winning screenwriter, author, and filmmaker Eryk Pruitt, whose short story “Knockout” was a finalist for the Derringer Award. What We Reckon is East Texas noir with elements of farce, a wild ride both disturbing and disturbed, as if Larry Brown climbed into that contraption in The Fly, but instead of an insect getting spliced with Brown, it was Carl Hiaasen.
"What We Reckon is by turns horrifying and bemusing, but always entertaining. The resolution is unexpected, strangely elegant and comforting. And somehow the whole package puts me in mind of O Brother, Where Art Thou?” READ MORE. | TEXAS READS James Patterson writes about Texas true crime case From Glenn Dromgoole's column
James Patterson, the mega-bestselling novelist, turns his storytelling talents to true crime, featuring a Texas murder-for-hire case in Murder, Interrupted (Grand Central Publishing, $30 hardcover, $15.99 paperback). The Texas story kicked off Patterson’s new “Murder Is Forever” TV series this year on the Discovery Channel. You can read Murder, Interrupted — 178 pages — in one or two sittings. The second story, 120 pages or so, is Mother of All Murders, about a teenaged girl who comes to realize that she isn’t the invalid her mother has claimed she was all these years. READ MORE. | ON LONE STAR BOOK BLOG TOURS
Our Lone Star Book Blog Tours reach more than 100,000 visitors every month with author interviews, book reviews, giveaways, promotions, guest posts, book trailers and more. See who's coming up on tour this week. | |
