Texas! by Dana Fuller Ross - Not sure exactly why, years ago, I picked up this book at some Friends of the Library book sale. Hopefully I only paid a quarter or less for it. It is the fifth book in the 24-book Wagons West! series by Dana Fuller Ross, one of the pen names of Noel Bertram Gerson.
The first four books in that series describe the initial wagon train to Oregon beginning in 1837. This fifth book, which begins in 1844, has the rather unlikely premise of two groups of Oregon settlers from the first four books in the series going to Texas. I'm sorry, but I find that to be ridiculous.
Army colonel Lee (Leland) Blake, stationed in Oregon (which is not yet a state), is asked to escort a wagon train of American settlers to Texas from the East. He brings a trusted aide and they both bring their wives. And Captain Rick Miller of the Texas Rangers is sent by Republic of Texas president Sam Houston to Oregon, to bring back a shipbuilder and a small group of men to build a navy for Texas.
I found this set-up (and many of the subsequent events) to be pretty much unbelievable. It was clearly a way to keep using some of the characters from the first four books, which were apparently pretty popular when this book was published in 1980. The book even includes a ridiculous character from China, who uses ninja throwing stars and even teaches the Army and Rangers how to use them!
I also don't think Lee, Cathy, and Rick were typically used as nicknames in this era. It all made me question the historical accuracy of events in the book, which extends into Texas' admission into the United States and the subsequent war with Mexico, that ended in February 1848. At the end of the book, Lee, Cathy, and Rick (among others) are all heading to California! - the next book in the series.
I felt I was reading more of a romance or adventure novel (not my favorite genres) than historical fiction. Needless to say, I won't be reading any other books in the series.
Apple and Magnolia by Laura Gehl, illustrated by Patricia Metola - Britta is convinced two adjacent trees, an Apple and a Magnolia, are best friends. Her dad and (sister?) Bronwyn discourage her, but her Nana (grandmother?) encourages her to consider the possibility. When Magnolia appears to be ill, Britta tries various things to help it - all of which involve connecting it more to Apple.
What really attracted me to this book was author Laura Gehl's note at the beginning, that trees really can help each other, and the publisher, Flyaway Books, promises a downloadable discussion guide when the book is published in February 2022. I would need to see that guide to determine if the age range of 3-7 given on the book is appropriate, or if it could also be used with older students in a science class.
Madrid artist Patricia Metola's use of soft brushstrokes and colors add a lot to the story. The book I received from the LibraryThing Early Reviewer's program was a paperback uncorrected proof (it's unrealistic to expect publishers to provide hardbound review copies).
Mac & Irene by Margot McMahon - This book was written by the artist/sculptor daughter of the Mac and Irene of the title. Subtitled "A WWII Saga," the book is mostly about Franklin "Mac" McMahon's experiences as a prisoner of war in Germany during World War II. (Irene is kind of peripheral to the main story.) It's a nice tale, but I had a couple problems with the book.
First, there are various photographs, illustrations (Mac was an artist), and images of documents and newspaper clippings, but most are far too small to see in any detail, and only two (at the very end of the book) have captions.
Second, the book badly needed an editor, or at least a proofreader. For example, I found an instance where a couple sentences on page 57 were repeated nearly word-for-word on page 60. The text did not flow well, and at times was far too wordy and overwritten. Here is an example from page 54: "A row of stoic, uniformed boys, one straw-blonde with sapphire eyes, one white-blond with azure eyes, a cerulean-eyed platinum blonde and another with sandy hair and cyan eyes sat on a bench." Oh please. Why not just say, "A row of four stoic, uniformed boys, all blue-eyed blondes, sat on a bench."
This is a lovely tribute book for the writer's family, and perhaps will appeal to collectors of World War II memoirs.
Texasville by Larry McMurtry - I'm not sure what I was thinking when I picked up this mass market paperback. Probably was homesick - I think I got this book sometime in the 20-year period I lived in Washington state. Finally got around to reading it after being back in Texas nearly 16 years. You can tell it was not a high priority - the only book left on my TBR shelf (after reading them, I donate the books) is the 1036-page Hawaii by James Michener.
Texasville, the sequel to Larry McMurtry's The Last Picture Show (which I never read nor saw at the movies), was an okay read for the end-of-year holiday period, when one tends to be distracted by so many other things. The 98 short chapters made it easy to pick up and put down.
The book is basically a bunch of navel-gazing by Duane Moore, 30 years after the events in the first book. It's the 1980s, and the big drop in oil prices has put 48-year-old Duane about $12 million in debt. Meanwhile his wife Karla continues to spend money like crazy, and his four children, in their teens through early 20s, are out of control. Everybody in town (including Duane) seems to be having at least one affair. No wonder Duane's Depressed (oh wait - that's the next book in the series).
At 561 pages, this book is way too long. It rambles and is only loosely tied together by the Hardtop County centennial celebration in the town of Thalia, where Duane, his family, and all the rest of the eccentric characters live (in or near). The Texasville of the title is the original settlement in the county, and no longer exists. Thalia is based on McMurtry's real hometown of Archer City, Texas, and I have to wonder just how much of Duane is McMurtry.
I did mark a couple quotes that caught my eye. On page 61, Jenny (who chairs most of the subcommittees related to the centennial) "was one of the few Republicans in town, and her sense of patriotism extended all the way down to the county level." Believe it or not, Texas was mostly Democratic until the mid-1980s, when many Democratic politicians in the state started switching to the Republican party.
And on page 220, Jacy (Duane's high school girlfriend, who's back in town) says, "'A lot of people think soap operas are successful because they're like life, but that's horseshit. Soap operas are successful because they aren't very much like life. Game shows are what's really like life. You win things that look great at the time but turn out to be junk, and you lose things you might want to keep forever, just because you're unlucky.'"
I do think this is a book where it would have been better to have read The Last Picture Show first (or at least seen the movie). The characters were not well developed in Texasville, and I might have understood some of them better if I'd read the first book in the series first. As it is, I'm not interested in reading anything else in the series now.
