We’ve just received four cookbooks dedicated only to Texas cuisine (really cooking for us Texans), and Shirley and I would enjoy receiving your input as to whether we should keep these books. They are currently on the top shelf behind the chairs of the computer stations. Please, if you have the interest and the time, glance through them and let us know what you think.
Really didn’t do much reading this past week as we were out of town again and I had too much fun. But I can speak of three books, one I recommend quite highly as it made a huge impression on me.
The first is Black Water by T. Jefferson Parker. Despite having the same last name as a very popular author, his books are not being read that much. Which is really a shame as he writes an excellent mystery with totally believable characters and a fast moving plot. This book starts with immediate action and this pace continues to the surprise ending. And that really grabs you so don’t be like me, and read the ending after only 1/3 of the book!
The second is another of Nelson DeMille’s stories, entitled Night Fall, and I am uncertain as to where the title originated. DeMille says in his forward that the book is a fictionalized premise of the cause of a real life tragedy; that of the explosion of TWA 800 in July of 1996 over the Atlantic. Although the finding for the explosion has been agreed upon by four Federal agencies, there remains doubt as to this conclusion. DeMille returns his character John Corey, formerly a NYPD homicide detective and now a part of the ATTF (Federal Anti-Terrorist Task Force) who still remains curious as to the cause of this explosion. And, though the Federal Government has closed its investigation at the end of five years, Corey and his wife, FBI agent Kate Mayfield, are still asking questions. The conclusion of this book leaves you gasping.
But Craig McDonald’s El Gavilan is the story that impressed me, and, I consider, one of the most outstanding tales I’ve read. Set in a fictionalized town in Ohio, McDonald tells the struggle of the townspeople to cope with the influx of illegal immigrants arriving in their town. The book begins with the story of an extended family traveling from Veracruz to the Arizona border, their struggles to reach Arizona and the deaths of many members due to the lack of proper preparation, namely water. The book ends with the meeting of a young Mexican couple in Tubutama with a Coyote looking to make some money. When asked by the young man, where to go, the Coyote replies: “O-H-I-O”.
El Gavilan is the local sheriff who knows many of the naturalized families and tries to help them. As the residents of the town are unaware of the difference between the “illegals” and the “legals”, intolerance is the result with the knowledge that the non-English speaking children are causing a huge drop in the ratings of the schools, an overburdened health-treatment system and an overwhelmed police department. A new police chief arrives who was formerly a Border Patrol officer that recognizes the problems as he tries to bring an understanding between the townspeople and Hispanic residents. But there is so much more to the book than just the foregoing.
Just a quickie: we have an unbelievable array of books for purchase at our Library, both hard cover and soft cover, of all types of fiction and even nonfiction. Come see us before you take your trip! And we welcome all you summer visitors to our Library; we may be small but we have a lot of good books and DVDs! Just takes a Library Card!
And remember: Our Library is open on Monday and Tuesday from 9-1 and 2-6; on Wednesday, we open at 1:00 p.m. till 6:00 p.m.; Thursday from 12:00 Noon till 5:00 p.m. and Saturday from 9:00 a.m. till 1:00 p.m.
“When an old person dies, a Library burns down”
Karin Gillespie
