Up Near Dallas ~ ~ Blog Tour, Review, & Giveaway!

UP NEAR DALLAS

Winds of Change -- Book III

by

GINA HOOTEN POPP

  Genre:  Texas Historical Fiction / Romance

Date of Publication: November 12, 2017

Number of Pages: 307

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The year is 1934. Economic turbulence rocks the country. And record drought dries up crops, along with the spirits of every farmer south of the Mason-Dixon. Yet for sixteen-year-old Mick McLaren, life is good as he takes to the open road to chase his dream of being a musician. Riding boxcars, hitchhiking, walking and driving his way across Depression Era Texas, he finds not only himself, but the love of a girl from Dallas named Margaret. Along the way, they befriend Cowboy Larson, a Delta Blues guitarist. Together the three teens, from three very different worlds, come-of-age as their life-changing journey carries them through killer dust storms, extreme poverty, and the unprecedented gangster activity of the Dirty Thirties. 

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HALL WAYS REVIEW: ✪✪✪✪ Up Near Dallas by Gina Hooten Popp is an excellent time machine ride back to 1934 Texas, where life is a dusty, drought-stricken struggle for most people. There is a deep division and disconnect between the very rich, who live relatively unscathed, and the very poor and pretty much everyone else in between. Popp makes her points (many applicable to modern times) clearly, and along with Mick McLaren and Margaret Morningstar, our sixteen-year-old main characters, readers grow and just might change how they view life on the other side of the tracks.

As I often do, I jumped right in on reading Up Near Dallas without knowing much about it or remembering that it is the third book in the Winds of Change series. And it worked just fine as a stand-alone book. HOWEVER,  though this is a little bass-ackwards, as we are prone to say in Texas, I recommend reading at least the summaries of books one and two before starting this book. Doing that would put book three in context (this is a family saga stretching from the late 1800s forward) and explain why Up Near Dallas is told the way it’s told. I think it would be better to read them in sequence, but the best part about not doing that is that those characters about whom I wanted to know more, more, more (Mick’s parents and grandparents) are the focus of those earlier books. Perfect!   (Ooh, and there’s even a free novella prequel, The Emigrant’s Song. I plan on going back and starting there.)

Up Near Dallas is told in very short chapters and from four different points-of-view. Those two elements and the fact that our main characters are teenagers – and there is insta-love -- made the book feel like it was suited for a young-adult audience. (Tie in the prior books, and it likely works for young adult, new adult, and adult readers, but I am not sure.)

Speaking of those fascinating characters…author Gina Hooten Popp knows how to write ‘em. There is a wide cast of players (again, it seems many are from prior books), and each is distinctly written and brings something interesting to the table. That is one of the over-reaching themes in the story – that life is about people and the bonds and relationships forged between them by shared experience or even random encounters. Up Near Dallas focuses on hope in a world full of despair.

"One thing good that has come out of all these hard times -- 

people coming together to help each other."

The experience our main characters Mick and Margaret share is the catalyst for both to grow, but each in a different way. I don’t want to spoil what this “experience” is (Popp ties-in an important historical event in each of her books, and in Up Near Dallas, it’s FAB), but readers will enjoy not just following the event itself, but how out of it, Mick begins to realize his privilege and learns true empathy, and Margaret becomes empowered and learns to scratch below the surface to understand someone’s character. I mentioned the insta-love that happens; I understand an event of this magnitude would bring two people together, but I don’t feel like I am shown enough, especially with Margaret, to merit what seems like a sudden pining, head-over-heels love she feels. 

The story is carried primarily by dialogue, which comes across naturally, like I’d expect to hear people of that time speak.  Popp’s descriptions are richly painted, so that readers feel the magnitude of a dust storm or the tranquility of an evening in the Texas countryside.  

"There's no sound in the world like the hum of 

the wind blowing through oak trees before a thunderstorm."

The writing is solid, but there are a few plot holes that need filling or fleshing-out to strengthen the story. Additionally, another round of editing would help take the book to the next level as those typos and errors are distracting to this reader. (I know, I know. THIS reader is considerably more persnickety than most.)

There are several directions the next book could take (and there MUST be a next book with that ending!), and there are opportunities abounding for tangent books following the lives of any of the fascinating characters. (Dr. Lyles, please.) Meanwhile, I look forward to going back to the beginning and reading book one, The Storm After, which tells of Mick’s grandpa surviving the Galveston Hurricane in 1900!), and Lucky’s Way, which tells of Mick’s dad as a WWI fighter pilot.

Thank you to Lone Star Book Blog Tours and the author for giving me a gorgeous print copy in exchange for my honest opinion – the only kind I give. 

A native Texan, Gina Hooten Popp was born in Greenville and now lives in Dallas with her husband and son. Along with writing novels, Gina has enjoyed a long career as a professional writer in advertising. Her debut novel THE STORM AFTER was a finalist in the 2014 RONE Awards, and her just-released book CHICO BOY: A NOVEL was a 2016 Medalist Winner in the New Apple Annual Book Awards. Recently, her novel LUCKY'S WAY, about a young fighter pilot from Houston, was endorsed by the United States World War One Centennial Commission. 

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VISIT THE OTHER GREAT BLOGS ON THE TOUR:

12/4/17	Guest Post	Books and Broomsticks
12/5/17	Review	Hall Ways Blog
12/6/17	Excerpt	Texas Book Lover
12/7/17	Playlist	The Clueless Gent
12/8/17	Review	StoreyBook Reviews
12/9/17	Notable Quotable	A Page Before Bedtime
12/10/17	Excerpt	Texan Girl Reads
12/11/17	Review	Missus Gonzo
12/12/17	Author Interview	The Librarian Talks
12/13/17	Review	Reading by Moonlight

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Onions in the Stew ~ ~ ~ Audiobook Blog Tour, Review, & Giveaway!

Author: Betty MacDonald

Narrator: Heather Henderson

Length: 9 hours 40 minutes

Publisher: Post Hypnotic Press⎮2016

Genre: Humor, Memoir

The bestselling author of the American humor classic The Egg and I continues the adventure with this collection of tales about life on the fringe of the Western wilderness. Writing in the 1950s, Betty MacDonald, sophisticated and urbane, captivated readers with her observations about raising a family on an island in Puget Sound. As usual, humorist MacDonald is her own favorite target. She manages to get herself into scrapes with washing machines set adrift in rowboats, used cars, and a $25 Turkey Squasher. And then there's the scariest aspect of island life -- teenaged children.

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Betty Bard MacDonald (1907–1958), the best-selling author of The Egg and I and the classic Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle children’s books, burst onto the literary scene shortly after the end of World War II. Readers embraced her memoir of her years as a young bride operating a chicken ranch on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, andThe Egg and I sold its first million copies in less than a year. The public was drawn to MacDonald’s vivacity, her offbeat humor, and her irreverent take on life. In 1947, the book was made into a movie starring Fred MacMurray and Claudette Colbert, and spawned a series of films featuring MacDonald’s Ma and Pa Kettle characters.
MacDonald followed up the success of The Egg and I with the creation of Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, a magical woman who cures children of their bad habits, and with three additional memoirs: The Plague and I (chronicling her time in a tuberculosis sanitarium just outside Seattle), Anybody Can Do Anything (recounting her madcap attempts to find work during the Great Depression), and Onions in the Stew (about her life raising two teenage daughters on Vashon Island).
Author Paula Becker was granted full access to Betty MacDonald’s archives, including materials never before seen by any researcher. Looking for Betty MacDonald, the first official biography of this endearing Northwest storyteller, reveals the story behind the memoirs and the difference between the real Betty MacDonald and her literary persona.


Heather Henderson is a voice actress and audiobook narrator with a 20-year career in literary and performing arts. Her narrations include the NYT bestseller (now also a feature film) Brain on Fire; and Sharon Creech’s The Boy on the Porch, which won her an Earphones award and was named one of the Best Children’s Audiobooks for 2013 by Audiofile Magazine. She earned her Doctor of Fine Arts degree at the Yale School of Drama, and is co-curator of AudioEloquence.com, a pronunciation research site for the audiobook industry. In 2015, Heather was a finalist for a Voice Arts Award (Outstanding Narration, Audiobook Classics), for her narration of Betty MacDonald’s The Egg and I.

HALL WAYS REVIEW: 

"From the water, Vashon looks like a stout gentleman taking a Sunday nap under a wooly dark green afghan. The afghan, obviously homemade,  is fringed on the edges, occasionally lumpy, eked out with odds  and ends of paler and darker wools, but very  ample so that it falls in thick folds to the water."

What a fabulous, descriptive first chapter of the book! Betty MacDonald knows how to pull readers right in to the setting, which in this memoir is primarily Vashon Island, off Puget Sound in Washington. In the first chapter alone, there were so many quotables I wanted to write down to remember -- since I was driving, I didn't (and hence, I don't remember them: the audio book curse) but trust me, MacDonald was an amazingly clever and talented writer.

One of the humorous things MacDonald does to illustrate an idea is to provide long, over-the-top, lists of examples to back up her points. As a result, there may be ten examples of types of berries that grow on Vashon island, eight examples of the businesses found in town, nine things a teenager won't eat, or eleven rules for meeting a realtor (see what I did there?) And the sarcasm just drips across the sentences. Narrator Heather Henderson is a master at conveying the sarcasm and some of the best parts are when Heather uses a chirpy voicing to convey when MacDonald is trying to sound optimistic. Some of the funniest parts (and ones I related to the most) came when she'd describe the vision versus the reality -- the idea of the family outing and how it would play out are charming, the realities. . . not so much. (Day one of a two week snow-in: charming. Every day after: not so much.)

"Then came adolescence and the birth of the willful deliberate bold faced lie."

And speaking of realities, it is such such a crack-up how she describes and illustrates teen angst and the teens-hate-everything phase of their lives when adults are too dumb, never know what's going on, and can't relate to the kids. Even with this being written in the 50s, much of the teen behavior rings true today. Again, the humor and familiarity shine through as a neighbor compliments MacDonald on her well-mannered, witty children who are so awful to their own parents. Particularly funny was going through "the lies" phase with MacDonald and her two teen daughters.  Teens are teens and have always been teens. Stereotypical? I certainly don't think so after raising five of my own.  (Side note:  on of MacDonald's daughters calls her Mommy and the other calls her Betty, and I still don't know why.  I need to read/listen to the first memoir, The Egg and I, and see if that mystery is solved there.)

As with all of MacDonald's memoirs thus far, she gives the readers snippets of the times, dropping prices for things to help with perspective. There are huge differences (the one dollar steak dinner, acceptable for teens to openly smoke), but some sad sameness as MacDonald is lamenting that women earned half the pay of men and weren't considered smart enough to do math on the job. Heather Henderson is appropriately snarky in the delivery and rightfully so. There are some cringe-worthy stereotypes and labels thrown about, and MacDonald is a bit blase when talking about everything from suicide and domestic abuse, to alcoholism and the Japanese internment camps . . . all were just glossed over topics, but again, a sign o' the times for when the book was written.

As with the other memoirs, the pairing of Betty MacDonald's words with Heather Henderson's narration is perfect.  Onions in the Stew is my favorite of the three memoirs (The Plague and I, Anybody Can Do Anything) I have read so far because it was the funniest but also I could relate to so much of it.  All of the characters are recognizable -- we all have had or known THAT child, neighbor, cousin, friend, or daughter's boyfriend.

Thank you to Audiobookworm Promotions and Post Hypnotic Press for providing me the download in exchange for my honest review -- the only kind I give. 

Onions In the Stew Giveaway #1

Onions In the Stew Giveaway #2

Onions In the Stew Giveaway #3


Mar. 11: terriluvsbooks (Spotlight & Audio Excerpt)
Mar. 12: The Phantom Paragrapher (Spotlight & Audio Excerpt)
Mar. 13: The Pursuit of Bookishness (Review & Giveaway)
Mar. 14: Dab of Darkness (Review)
Mar. 15: CGB Blog Tours (Spotlight & Audio Excerpt)
Mar. 16: Hall Ways (Review & Giveaway)
Mar. 18: Ali the Dragon Slayer (Review & Giveaway)
Mar. 20: Bound4Escape (Review & Giveaway)
Mar. 23: He Said Books Or Me (Review)
Mar. 24: Just Us Book Blog (Spotlight & Audio Excerpt)
Mar. 26: Buried Under Books (Review)
Mar. 27: Jorie Loves A Story (Review)
Mar. 28: Babs Book Bistro (Review, Spotlight, Audio Excerpt & Giveaway)
Mar. 29: Celtic Lady Reviews (Spotlight & Audio Excerpt)
Mar. 31: Avid Book Colector (Review, Spotlight, Audio Excerpt & Giveaway)

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Hail of Fire: A Man & His Family Face Natural Disaster ~ ~ ~ ~ Blog Tour, Excerpt, & Review

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HAIL OF FIRE

by

Randy Fritz

 

Hail of Fire: A Man and His Family Face Natural Disaster is an intimate account of the third worst wildfire in modern U.S. history, and the most destructive in the history of Texas. It is a memoir of what happened to Randy Fritz, an artist turned politician turned public policy leader, and his family during and after the Bastrop County Complex fire in September 2011. Combining a searing account of the fire as it grew to apocalyptic strength with universal themes of loss and grief, Fritz gives a first-person account of the emotional turmoil that comes with rebuilding one’s life after a calamitous event.

The wildfire itself was traumatic to those who witnessed it and suffered its immediate aftermath. But the most significant impact came in the months and years following, as families grieved, struggling to adapt to a new world and accept the destruction of an iconic forest of internationally acclaimed great natural beauty—the Lost Pines. Neighbors once close worried for each other, while others discovered new friendships that transcended the boundaries of race, class, and family lineage. Fritz struggled as his wife and daughter tried to make sense of their losses. He never imagined the impact this disaster would have on them individually and as a family, as well as the visceral toll he would pay in the journey to make sense of it all.

Hail of Fire is an unflinching story of how a man and his tight-knit family found grace after losing everything. Fritz’s hard-won insights provide inspiration to anyone on the search for what truly matters, particularly those who have undergone an unexpected and life-changing event and those who love and care for them.

HARDCOVER BOOK DETAILS

Price: $24.95

Pages: 256

Size: 6 x 9

Published: Jun 2015

ISBN: 9781595342591

EBOOK DETAILS

Price: $24.95

Published: Jun 2015

ISBN: 9781595342607

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At least seventy thousand wildfires happen every year in America, and most regenerate healthy forests, culling underbrush, improving the soil, and unspooling the life resting inside pinecones.

Some of them shed their better natures, mutating into something dangerous enough that heavy equipment and elite firefighters must be called in. Of those, only a few turn into criminals, taking lives and destroying homes.

But in the modern era, there have been only two wildfires, both in California, more vicious and pitiless than the one that changed my life after nearly killing me.

With the tag-team help of a malicious sun that baked Central Texas dry for months and a tropical storm that uncoiled from the Gulf of Mexico with a hateful wind instead of rain, the fire that ravaged Bastrop County—my home for more than thirty years—on a holiday weekend in 2011 left behind a scorched and violated landscape shaped like a giant teardrop.

The fire started in two separate locations as people were returning home from church or finishing their lunches. In each case, a dead tree on private property blew into a power line, and the resulting sparks lit the bounty of fuel on the ground—a desiccated carpet of pine needles and twigs that were like gasoline vapor waiting for a match.


The wind curling off Tropical Storm Lee’s dry side energized the embryonic flames. In short order, as they skittered along the ground, vaulted from tree to tree, and sprinted from house to house, the fires began shooting off flaming pieces of bark or wood, like the sparks of a campfire, except the embers weren’t innocent or nostalgic.

As these fiery hailstones prepped the drought-stricken forest for the arrival of each fire, yet another one began five miles southwest of the first two before the event was an hour old. By the time the conflagration crossed Highway 71—one of the major arterials connecting two of the nation’s largest cities— they had merged into a colossus, and a thousand homes were burning or about to be.

The teardrop-shaped fire destroyed more homes, and upended more lives, than any other fire in Texas history. It reached a level of intensity that fire experts have scientifically confirmed only a handful of times before.

HALL WAYS REVIEW: In Hail of Fire, Randy Fritz shares with readers the profound emotional impact of the 2011 forest fires that devastated Bastrop County, Texas. By the time the fires had swept through nearly fifty-five square miles, over seventeen hundred families had lost their homes, including author Randy Fritz.

I expected the family's escape and recovery from the fire to be more central to the story, but it was actually pretty anticlimactic -- they were told to evacuate and they did it, and the close call that the author had in returning to gather some belongings was only realized much later in the book.   Also, where I expected the family to go through real, physical hardship at being homeless and without any possessions, they were immeasurably blessed and minimally inconvenienced. Fritz never downplays their material and physical blessings; rather, he mourns the spiritual losses of an entire ecosystem - and HIS beloved pine trees. 

Fritz tells his story two ways: he begins by leading up to the fires, but he makes frequent digressions into the past, telling stories about his early days in Bastrop County. There is a great deal of dialogue, and his side stories are interesting and contribute to readers better understanding Fritz and his values -- and certainly underscored his ties to the area. Some of these stories added clarity to the depth of Fritz's losses, but others were confusing and seemed like nothing more than name dropping and borderline bragging. Given that the book is a memoir, it is certainly allowed but it added little for me and was more a distraction from the core story.

Fritz is a gifted writer whose use of figurative language really enriches his descriptions. The book was well-edited (very few typos) and the writing often lyrical. His love of the land and the beautiful trees covering it is obvious and the despair he feels in losing it is heart breaking to read. Through Fritz's narrative, readers will feel Fritz's emotional turmoil and self-destructive behavior and applaud him for getting help when he couldn't manage the burden of grief and guilt on his own. The real meat of Hail of Fire is Fritz's struggle to regain control of his emotional well-being and make some measure of peace with his former friend, fire. When he finally realizes that "grief and loss and regret and anger and guilt cannot be washed away through force of will or stoical silence," the healing begins. 

And healing is what this book is really about: both Fritz's self-healing and the healing of nature. At the end of the book, Fritz synthesizes what he learned by going through the ordeal, and he gives very practical advice for anyone who lives in an area prone to natural disaster or anyone who survives a traumatic event.  He laments that no one told him early on that what he was feeling was normal, and Fritz clearly wants to save others from the same distress he endured.  Hail of Fire is unique and provides an exceptionally candid look at loss, exposing unexpected angles to post-disaster recovery. 

 
Praises for this book from Kirkus Review, Booklist, Austin American-Statesman, Texas Monthly, and more can be found on the publisher's website.

 

 Randy Fritz is the former chief operating officer of the Texas Department of State Health Services, the state’s public and mental health agency. He helped coordinate the state’s response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and led the team that implemented the Children’s Health Insurance Program in Texas. Fritz lives in Bastrop, Texas, with his wife, Holly, and their youngest daughter, Miranda.

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Check out these other great blog stops on the tour!

Sept 4 - Books and Broomsticks promo

Sept 5 - The Crazy Booksellers promo

Sept 6 - TexasBookLover Author Q&A

Sept 7 - The Page Unbound promo

Sept 8 - Because This is My Life, Y’all promo

Sept 9 - Bookishjessp Author Q/A

Sept 10 - My Book Fix Review

Sept 11 - Texas Book-aholic Review

Sept 12 - Missus Gonzo Review

Sept 13 - Hall Ways Review

 *NOTE FROM KRISTINE at HALL WAYS: Except for the Hall Ways review, the content of this promo post was provided by Lone Star Literary Life Blog Tours.  If you're a Texas blogger interested in joining the ranks of Texas Book Blog Tours, contact Tabatha Pope.