Editor's Note | Someday

Every serious reader has a TBR pile. Not just a Texas Books in Review pile but a ‘to be read’ pile. Sometimes quite literally. I have friends who keep three to ten books on their nightstand, and they read one, add another, read a few others. The cycle continues. Others keep a mental list of what they want to read and visit the library when they’re ready. If you’re like me, you have boxes of books waiting. Closets and shelves of unread novels, biographies, and memoirs. It drives my wife nuts. She says they’re clutter. Either read them or get rid of them, she says. But I have to keep the faith that I will get to them. Someday. I promise. Really. 

   A few of the books I haven’t gotten to include various classics I’m embarrassed I still haven’t read. I won’t list them here. There are also thick, doorstoppers that I don’t want to start unless I have the time and energy to dedicate to them. And I have random works of nonfiction on topics that interested me at some point (and still do). When will I get to them? I don’t know. Will I get to them before I die? I don’t know. But I am going to try. Of course, I keep adding to the pile, and that’s the problem. Everyday I discover new authors, anthologies, and novels. I still want to read Charlie Chaplin’s biography (bought that six years ago). I still want to finish that collection of essays about classical music in the twentieth century (bought over twenty years ago). I still want to read those books to improve my chess game, my guitar playing, my German, my cycling, my cooking, my finances, my understanding of Italian Renaissance art. There’s too much to read! 

   Ain’t it grand? 

   What books have you been waiting to read? Maybe you missed out on some history and want to delve into the Civil War or Napoleon or the Ming Dynasty. Maybe your copy of War and Peace has been collecting dust. Do you swear every year that this year you’ll read The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire? Are you ready to tackle Proust?  

   Maybe this summer will be your season to knock that TBR list down to size! 

   Or maybe you’ll let TBR add to your TBR list. Okay, I admit it, we’re enablers, but Texas Books in Review is always ready to showcase the latest in fiction, poetry, history, and more when it comes to books from the Lone Star State. Come on. You know you’re always looking for something great to read. 

   This issue of Texas Books in Review is loaded with thoughts and opinions on the latest fiction and non-fiction, and you’re invited to take a peek and read about what’s new, what’s good, and what’s different.

   Attica Locke’s newest novel, Guide Me Home, brings back Texas Ranger Darren Matthews in another mystery, and reviewer Tucker Cowan delivers his insights into Locke’s plot and prose. Similarly, I delve into the third entry of a Texas mystery series with my review of The Texas Murders by James Patterson and Andrew Bourelle. These books both deal with intrigue and the Texas Rangers, but they’re different animals with different reviews. 

   If you prefer history over crime, Texas Books in Review has you covered. This issue of Texas Books in Review has a plethora of historical fiction including The Madstone by Elizabeth Crook and Last Dance on the Starlight Pier by Sarah Bird. These two novels explore Texas in the nineteenth and early twentieth century respectively; our critics Mercedes Belaiche and Steph Grossman have their detailed views on how much those books engage the reader. For something slightly more contemporary, be sure to read Makenzie Hollingsworth’s review of Gude Me Home by Bret Anthony Johnston. This novel, centered around the Branch Davidan compound in Waco, confronts individuals living their lives unaware that they were about to be part of a dark day in American history. For a different look at Texas in the twentieth century, you will want to read Jeehyun Lim’s review of The Turtle House by Amanda Churchill, which explores the relationship of generations in an Asian American family in Texas. The Witches of El Paso and Malas by Luis Jaramillo and Marcela Fuentes explore life in West Texas and in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, and our critics Katheleen Morrish and Laura Irvine delve into both novels with a critical eye.

   We cover more than novels of course. Eric Sarmiento has his review of the book Houston and the Permanence of Segregation: An Afropessimist Approach to Urban History by David Ponto III. Sarmiento details what the author tries to do when investigating how segregation has shaped and continues to shape the state’s largest city. Critic Victoria Garcia tackles poetry in her critique of The Book of Wounded Sparrows, the newest collection from Octavio Quintanilla, a former poet laureate of San Antonio.

   All of us here at Texas Books in Review apologize if we’re part of the reason your TBR pile keeps growing. But not that sorry. Books are important. Texas is important. Texas books are important to everyone. This spring we’ve tried to keep conversations about Texas and the works coming out of Texas active and lively, and we’ve been lucky at the Center for the Study of the Southwest to host readings, lectures, and symposiums by historians, scholars, poets, and writers. Dr. Lina-Maria Murillo spoke about Chicana activism along the US-Mexico border, and former Poet Laurate of Corpus Christi Juan Manuel Pérez read from his works detailing Indigenous and Chicano experiences. Dr. Gilberto Rosas spoke about borders in El Paso, and Dr. Benjamin Johnson read from his latest book, Texas: An American History, which showcases why the Lone Star State has such influence upon the rest of the nation.

   These are just some of the events we helped sponsor, and just like the reviews you’re about to read, they were all done for a love of books, a love of reading, a love for intelligent conversation, and, of course, a love for the big state of Texas. We hope you can stay cool this summer, preferably with a good book. You will get to all of them… someday.