Village Readers
Fiction and Non-Fiction with a Texas Twist
Goodbye to a River
by John Graves
When:
Tuesday, January 22
6:00 p.m.
Where:
SMU Bookstore, 3060 Mockingbird Lane
Goodbye to a River is an account of a farewell canoe voyage to a section of the Brazos River
in north-central Texas. As the author braves rapids and fatigue and the fickle autumn weather, he muses
upon old blood feuds of the region and violent skirmishes with native tribes, and retells wild stories
of courage and cowardice and deceit that shaped both the river’s people and the land during frontier
times and later. Nearly half a century after its initial publication, Goodbye to a River is a
true American classic, a vivid narrative about an exciting journey and a powerful tribute to a vanishing
way of life and its ever-changing natural environment.
Love is a Wild Assault
by Elithe Hamilton Kirkland
When:
Tuesday, April 1
6:00 p.m.
Where:
SMU Bookstore, 3060 Mockingbird Lane
This is the extraordinary story of Harriet Potter—the woman who became a legend during the stirring days
of the battle for Texan independence and who played a dramatic role in the early days of the Texas Republic.
Kirkland based this novel on the memoir written by Potter.
The Time it Never Rained
by Elmer Kelton
When:
Tuesday, May 27
6:00 p.m.
Where:
SMU Bookstore, 3060 Mockingbird Lane
To the ranchers and farmers of 1950s Texas, man's biggest enemy is one he can't control. With their entire
livelihood pegged on the chance of a wet year or a dry year, drought has the ability to crush their whole
enterprise, to determine who stands and who falls, and to take food out of the mouths of the workers and
their families. To Charlie Flagg, an honest, decent, and cantankerous rancher, the drought of the early 1950s
is a foe that he must fight on his own grounds. Refusing the questionable "help" of federal aid programs, Charlie
and his family struggle to make the ranch survive until the time it rains again-if it ever rains again.
Big Cotton: How a Humble Fiber Created Fortunes, Wrecked Civilizations, and Put America on the Map
by Stephen Yafa
When:
Tuesday, July 22
6:00 p.m.
Where:
SMU Bookstore, 3060 Mockingbird Lane
Cotton has touched off wars and revolutions, inspired astonishing inventions, laid waste to entire ecosystems,
and enslaved untold millions of people. Beautifully researched and written, Big Cotton traces the cultural,
economic, and social history of the worlds' friendliest fiber from the kingdoms of Mesopotamia to the Gap.
Will's War
by Janice Woods Windle
When:
Tuesday, September 23
6:00 p.m.
Where:
SMU Bookstore, 3060 Mockingbird Lane
From bestselling author Janice Woods Windle comes a compelling historical novel based on the life of her own grandfather.
The protagonist is Will Bergfeld, a brash young man of German descent who is accused of treason and stands trial for his
life in 1917, in the midst of the anti-German sentiment that ran rampant in small-town Texas during World War I.
- Sleuthing the Alamo: Davy Crockett's Last Stand and Other Mysteries of the Texas Revolution by James Crisp
- Hill Country by Janice Woods Windle
- Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War by Tony Horwitz
- Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong by James W. Loewen.
- Revolution in Texas: How a Forgotten Rebellion and Its Bloody Suppression turned Mexicans into Americans by Ben Johnson.
- A Woman of Independent Means by Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey
- Bold Spirit: Helga Estby's Forgotten Walk Across Victorian America by Linda Lawrence Hunt and Sue Armitage
Questions? Contact Melissa Prycer, Curator of Education at 214-413-3671.
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