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Successful Houston trial lawyer profiled in new Hardy title

Michael Lee Lanning, author of more than twenty books, has written an interesting biography about high-profile Houston/Galveston trial lawyer Tony Buzbee.

Tony Buzbee: Defining Moments (John M. Hardy Publishing, $28.95 hardcover) focuses primarily on Buzbee’s success in winning multi-million–dollar verdicts or settlements for his clients.

Buzbee grew up poor in East Texas, graduated from Texas A&M in 1990 on an ROTC scholarship, served as a Marine platoon leader, and graduated second in his law class at the University of Houston before launching his practice in the Houston/Galveston area. A generous benefactor of Texas A&M, he was appointed to the Texas A&M System Board of Regents in 2013.

“This is a tough business,” Buzbee says. “I didn’t get into it to make friends. I got into it to make a small, sometimes large, difference in the lives of those who deserve it. Sometimes that means I, in some circles, am the bad guy, but so long as I do what I do with integrity and honesty, I don’t worry one whit about what others think.”

There are some parallels between the author and Buzbee. Lanning grew up poor on a farm in West Texas (Fisher County) in a house with no telephone or running water. He graduated from Trent High School in 1964 before going on to Texas A&M and a career in the Army. He lives on the Bolivar Peninsula across the bay from Galveston.

Lanning, best known for his books on military history, especially Vietnam, also published a book last year on his own battle with cancer, At War with Cancer ($14.99 paperback). Read more about his books on his website, michaelleelanning.com.

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Narrative Poems: Gwendolyn Zepeda, named Houston’s first poet laureate, has a new collection of sixty-two narrative poems titled Monsters, Zombies, and Addicts: Poems (Arte Público Press, $14.95 paperback). It is Zepeda’s second book of poems. She also is the author of a short story collection and three novels.

Her poems cover a variety of topics related to life in the modern metropolis, touching on such matters as ants, maggots, worms, shoes, fears, TV, paper dolls, animals, hurricanes, family and death. The poem “Sad Shock” begins: “A woman who worked in our building killed herself this morning.” Recalling that she had spoken with the woman just the day before in the ladies’ room, the poet reflects, “I wished aloud—offered the hundred dollars in my savings for the chance to go back in a time machine to yesterday, to somehow know what she was thinking, and to somehow change her mind.”

Glenn Dromgoole is co-author of 101 Essential Texas Books. Contact him at g.dromgoole@suddenlink.net.

>> Check out his previous
Texas Reads columns in Lone Star Lit

Book NOTICES  5.17.2015

Received Jan-May 2015

At Lone Star Literary Life, we genuinely appreciate every title submitted to us for review consideration. Our goal is to help Texas readers, booksellers, and libraries discover books they’ll likely want to read or showcase. If a new title is about, or set substantially in, Texas, whether fiction or nonfiction, we’ll make every effort to review it in our pages. If it’s a book of poetry or short stories by a Texas author, we’ll give it coverage as we’re able. Other books received in our offices are listed here; current titles on this list may be scheduled for future reviews.

Baty, R. Gaines

Champion of the Barrio: The Legacy of Coach Buryl Bary

Biography

978-1-62349-266-3

288 pgs., $24.95

Texas A&M University Press

February 2015

Bradley, Ed

We Never Retreat: Filibustering Expeditions into Spanish Texas, 1812-1822

History

978-1-62349-257-1

344 pgs., $47.00

Texas A&M University Press

February 2015

Brandimarte, Cynthia, with Angela Reed

Texas State Parks and the CCC: The Legacy of the Civilian Conservation Corps

History

978-1-62349-296-0

188 pgs., $25.00

Texas A&M University Press

January 2013

Brickhouse, Jamie

Dangerous When Wet: A Memoir

978-1-4668-3730-0

286 pgs., hardcover, $25.99

St. Martin's Press

April 2015

Cartwright, Gary

The Best I Recall: A Memoir

978-0-292-74907-8

272 pgs., hardcover, $27.95

University of Texas Press

June 2015

Chaplo, Paul V.

Marfa Flights: Aerial Views of Big Bend Country

978-1-62349-168-0

192 pgs., softcover, $29.95

Texas A&M University Press

July 2014

Chávez, Denise

The King and Queen of Comezón

Fiction

978-0--8061-4483-2

328 pgs., paperback, $19.95

University of Oklahoma Press

September 2014

Dixon, Kemp

Chasing Thugs, Nazis, and Reds: Texas Ranger Norman K. Dixon

Biography

978-1-62349-256-4

256 pgs., $29.95

Texas A&M University Press

February 2015

Fields, Tricia

Firebreak

Fiction

978-1-250-05505-7

288 pgs., $25.99

Minotaur Books

March 2015

Garcia, Elizabeth A.

Border Ghosts: Deputy Ricos #4

Fiction (Crime)

978-0-9905259-9-8

306 pgs., paperback, $18.95

Iron Mountain Press

July 2015

Holcombe, Larry

The Presidents and UFOs: A Secret History from FDR to Obama

History

978-1-250-04051-0

$27.99

St. Martin's Press

March 2015

Jackson, Ron J., Jr., and Lee Spencer White; foreword by Phil Collins

Joe, the Slave Who Became an Alamo Legend

Biography/History

978-0-8061-4703-1

352 pgs., hardcover, $29.95

University of Oklahoma Press

March 2015

Kent, Kathleen

The Outcast

Fiction (Historical)

978-0-316-20611-2

352 pgs., $16.00

Little Brown

October 2014

Kibler, Julie

Calling Me Home: A Novel

Fiction

978-1-250-02043-7

352 pgs., $15.99

St. Martin's Griffin

January 2014

Koenig, Minerva

Nine Days

Fiction

978-1-250-05194-3

$24.99

Minotaur Books

September 2014

Masters, Ben

Unbranded: Four Men and Sixteen Mustangs. Three Thousand Miles across the American West

Memoir/Photography

978-1-62349-281-6

188 pgs., hardcover, $40.00

Texas A&M University Press

January 2015

McKenzie, C. B.

Bad Country

Fiction

978-1-250-05354-1

Hardcover, $24.99

Minotaur Books

November 2014

Meyer, Kimberly

The Book of Wanderings: A Mother-Daughter Pilgrimage

Memoir

978-0-316-25121-1

368 pgs., $27.00

Little, Brown

March 2015

Moran, Jan

Scent of Triumph: A Novel of Perfume and Passion

Fiction

978-1-250-04890-5

$15.99

St. Martin's Griffin

March 2015

Paulda, Mark A.

El Paso 120: Edge of the Southwest

Photography/Essay

978-0-87565-602-1

128 pgs., $35.00

Texas Christian University Press`

October 2014

Ridge, Rachel, Anne; foreword by Priscilla Shiver

Flash: The Homeless Donkey Who Taught Me about Life, Faith, and Second Chances

Memoir/Pets

978-1-4143-9783-2

254 pgs., hardcover, $19.99

Tyndale

May 2015

Riley, Gretchen, and Peter D. Smith with Stephanie Foresythe-Sword

Famous Trees of Texas (Texas A&M Forest Service Centenial Edition)

Natural History

978-1-62349-238-0

188 pgs., hardcover, $35.00

Texas A&M University Press

January 2015

Shankle, Melanie

Nobody's Cuter Than You: A Memoir about the Beauty of Friendship

Memoir

978-1-4143-9748-1

236 pgs., paperback, $15.99

Tyndale

April 2015

Sitton, Thad (narrative); photographs by Carolyn Brown

Caddo Lake: Visions of a Southern Cypress Lake

Natural History

978-1-62349-239-7

188 pgs., $30.00

Texas A&M University Press

January 2015

Smith, J. Griffis

On the Road with Texas Highways: A Tribute to True Texas

Photography/Essay

978-1-62349-183-3

244 pgs., paperback

$29.95

Texas A&M University Press

September 2014

Wells, Lynn Chandler

Wink of an Eye, A Mystery

978-1-250-05319-0

$24.99

Minotaur Books

November 2014

Beings: Contemporary Peruvian Short Stories

Fiction (short stories)

9781908616739

212 pgs., paperback

Somos Libros

July 2015

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