An interesting mix of locally-produced Texas titles were recently added to the National Library Service’s BARD collection.
Fiction readers can ride alongside Texas Rangers, follow the exploits of Sheriff Dan Rhodes, sample an early Larry McMurtry novel, and discover Louisa May Alcott’s sequel to LITTLE WOMEN.
Nonfiction titles explore Lone Star history, from Texas’ earliest days through the Korean War and beyond.
BARD users can download these and other Texas titles at https://nlsbard.loc.gov/login/TX.
AMONG THE VALIANT; MEXICAN-AMERICANS IN WW II AND KOREA
Morin, Raul
This is a true, hard-hitting saga of the role of the Mexican-American soldiers in World War II and Korea.
DBC 17909
BOOK OF INSULTS, ANCIENT & MODERN: AN AMIABLE HISTORY OF INSULT, INVECTIVE, IMPRECATION & INCIVILITY (LITERARY, POLITICAL & HISTORICAL) HURLED THROUGH THE AGES & COMPILED AS A PUBLIC SERVICE
Selection of impudent, verbal abuse with information about the author and the circumstances surrounding each quip. Contains nearly 1000 ranging from Arab and Irish curses to vintage Mencken, Oscar Wilde, and George Bernard Shaw.
DBC 17915
BURN DOWN THE GROUND: A MEMOIR
Crews, Kambri
In this memoir, a daughter looks back on her unconventional childhood with deaf parents in rural Texas while trying to reconcile it to her present life, one in which her father is serving a twenty-year sentence in a maximum security prison. As a child, she wished that she had been born deaf so that she, too, could fully belong to the tight-knit deaf community that embraced her parents. Strong language and some violence. 2012.
DBC 17914
CAMINO SENCILLO
Teresa, Mother, 1910-1997
La Madre Teresa conocida alrededor del mundo por su trabajo incansable a favor de los pobres, los enfermos, y los moribundos, ha dedicado su vida a darles esperanza a los sin esperanza en mas de ciento veinte paises. “Un camino sencillo” es una guia espiritual singular tanto para los catolicos como los no catolicos: esta lleno de sabiduria y esperanza de la persona que nos ha otorgado el mejor modelo de amor en accion en nuestros dias. En espanol.
DBC 17913
CASTLE GAP AND THE PECOS FRONTIER
Dearen, Patrick
The Pecos River country of West Texas lies between San Angelo and the Pecos River and runs west to the edge of the Davis Mountains. Six stories preserve some of the history, legends and folklore of an area known for Comanche raids, historic cattle drives and hidden treasure—sought after by so many generations.
DBC 17923
DIRTY SALLY: A NOVEL
Simon, Michael, 1963-
Austin, Texas in 1988 is a boomtown gone bust, blistering in the heat of a six-month summer. Someone murdered a prostitute and parts of her body are turning up all over town. Detective Dan Reles, a displaced New Yorker with a chip on his shoulder and a dead partner on his conscience, is the cop on the case. As he follows the trail of the corpse nicknamed “Dirty Sally,” he finds himself crossing the lines between crack-ridden ghettos and the watering holes of the moneyed elite – lines it doesn’t pay to cross. Violence, strong language, and explicit descriptions of sex. 2004. (Book #1 of “Dan Reles Mystery” series.)
DBC 17921
GHOST OF A CHANCE: SHERIFF DAN RHODES #10
Crider, Bill, 1941-2018
Sheriff Dan Rhodes of Blacklin County, Texas, knows that times may change, but people are still people, some good, some bad, and most things can be explained with a little common sense—even the ghost haunting his jail. Could it be the same ghostly culprit looting the local cemetery? When Ty Berry, the president of one of two feuding historical societies, is found shot dead in a freshly dug grave, Rhodes decides the crime is of a more earthly nature. 2001.
DBC 17919
GOOD WIVES: LITTLE WOMEN, PART II
Alcott, Louisa May, 1832-1888
Three years after the ending of “Little Women” we again take up the story of the March girls and discover what has happened to them in that time. For grades 5-8 and older readers.
DBC 17924
HOUND-DOG MAN
Gipson, Fred, 1908-1973
This book, appealing to children and adults alike, tells the story of friendship between Cotton, a frontier boy undergoing the huntsman’s rites of passage, and Blackie (the hound-dog man), who is corralled by the love of a good woman. For grades 6-9 and older readers.
DBC 17910
JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES
Stroup, Herbert Hewitt, 1916-
The author provides a first-hand study of the Jehovah’s Witnesses—their history, their leaders, their beliefs and their attitudes.
DBC 17927
LEAVING CHEYENNE
McMurtry, Larry
McMurtry’s second novel, written when he was only 27, and said to be “… the starkest, most truthful, most terrible and yet beautiful treatment …” of the Texas ranching country and one which will “… offend many who prefer the glamour treatment …” It is the story of a 40-year love affair between a woman and two men—one reckless, the other cautious and careful. Some profanity and descriptions of sex.
DBC 17926
MURDER MOST FOWL: SHERIFF DAN RHODES #7
Crider, Bill, 1941-2018
Mystery set in a dusty, dying Texas county where emu rustling, beer drinking, and cockfighting are the major recreational activities. A murder victim is found floating down a creek in a porta-potty by a bunch of drunks, but it’s no joke to Sheriff Dan Rhodes, who has not one but two bodies on his hands. Lige Ward, a local fellow who’s lost his hardware business to the big new Wal-Mart is found in the toilet and a few days later the body of Ward’s wife, Rayjean, is discovered in a cockfighting ring. Rhodes thought he knew what went on in his town, but he discovers that not only did the locals hold illegal cockfights, but darned if they haven’t been covering up a whole bunch of other nasty secrets. Some violence, some strong language, and some descriptions of sex. 1994.
DBC 17918
PASTORAL
Shute, Nevil, 1899-1960
A wartime romance, between an English bomber pilot and a pretty WAAF officer. The men and women of the Royal Air Force fought daily for their lives and their country, while preserving the decencies and oddities of English country life on the rural airfields where they were based.
DBC 17912
PECKER’S REVENGE AND OTHER STORIES FROM THE FRONTIER’S EDGE
Van Pelt, Lori, 1961-
This is a collection of fourteen historical short stories featuring a variety of characters including miners, rodeo riders, railroad construction workers, young settlers, and others struggling with the conflicts and hazards of the nineteenth-century frontier.
DBC 17931
PISTOLS FOR TWO, AND OTHER STORIES
Heyer, Georgette, 1902-1974
These eleven Regency short stories by Georgette Heyer include: “Pistols for Two,” “A Clandestine Affair,” “Bath Miss,” “Pink Domino,” “A Husband for Fanny,” “To Have the Honour,” “Night at the Inn,” “The Duel,” “Hazard,” “Snowdrift,” and “Full Moon.” These stories are about affairs of honour between bucks and blades, rakes and rascals; and affairs of the heart between heirs and orphans and beauties and bachelors.
DBC 17922
RANGERS’ REVENGE
Miller, Jim, 1945-
They were once members of Texas’ proudest legion—Texas Rangers, men willing to fight and die to bring justice to the harsh frontier. Will Carston lived the Ranger creed as he staked out his ranch and defended a raw new town. And the tough Ranger spirit helped his hard-fisted sons survive the Civil War and left them a legacy they could neither deny nor forget. Strong language and some violence. (Book #1 of “Ex-Rangers” series.)
DBC 17934
RED, WHITE, AND BLUE MURDER: SHERIFF DAN RHODES #12
Crider, Bill, 1941-2018
County commissioners in Texas wield extraordinary influence, controlling the purse strings for all roads and public works. Even in rural Blacklin County, that’s serious money. Grat Bilson was a county commissioner, at least until someone whacked him over the head and set him on fire in his isolated hunting cabin. Blacklin County Sheriff Dan Rhodes knows that where murder’s concerned, it’s either love or money. Bilson’s roving wife has an alibi, which turns the focus to money, and sure enough, Rhodes quickly finds something rotten in the world of Blacklin’s county commissioners. Some strong language. 2003.
DBC 17920
REVOLUTION REMEMBERED: THE MEMOIRS AND SELECTED CORRESPONDENCE OF JUAN N. SEGUIN
Seguín, Juan Nepomuceno, 1806-1890
Edited by Jesús F. de la Teja
Here is a wealth of information for serious historians as well as a readable, informative account for anyone interested in early Texas history and the influence of the Mexicans who settled in Texas generations before the Americans. Violence.
DBC 17917
WILD COW TALES
Green, Ben K.
In thirteen stories full of rope burns and brush scratches the author of “Horse Tradin’” tells of the days when he made a speciality of catching wild cows that roundups couldn’t corral. 1969.
DBC 17911