In 1965 Phoebe Snetsinger was 34 and her life was half over. She was married and had four small children and was living in a little three bedroom, one bath house in rural Minnesota. On a spring day she went to visit her friend Elizabeth. She handed Phoebe a pair of binoculars and pointed toward …
Author Archives: Bill Hopkins
Brief book review: When the Killing’s Done
Alma and Dave hate each other. Alma is an environmentalist in charge of a project to restore the native habitat and wildlife of the Channel Islands National Park. Dave is the founder of an animal rights group who often seems to love animals more than he loves people. The Channel Islands are a group of …
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Brief book review: Hill Country Landowner’s Guide
Hill Country Landowner’s Guide by Jim Stanley The Hill Country, like our own Palo Pinto Country, is witnessing an influx of new landowners coming from all parts of the country. In most cases they are buying small to medium properties in rural areas. Many of these new landowners have little experience managing ranchland. This handbook …
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Beautiful, blooming landscapes without watering all summer
Carol Feldman is a veteran landscape architect whose practice is focused on water-conserving, sustainable landscapes. She will speak at the Gordon Community Center on Sunday, July 15, at 2 pm. After last summer’s brutal drought in Texas, we are all learning to use even less water in our landscapes. Conserving water outdoors can significantly lower …
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Brief book review — 1861
The Civil War Awakening By Adam Goodheart I’ve never been a Civil War buff. Â My eyes just blur over when I see the lists of battles and dates and the numbers killed in each battle. But last year I got hooked on the “Disunion” blog in the New York Times, which follows the Civil War …
Brief book review: Hellhound on his trail
The subtitle of this book by Hampton Sides is “The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin” Â which pretty much sums up the action. This is a suspense thriller which also happens to be a true story. Â In 1968 the escaped convict and assassin James Earl Ray managed …
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Native plants presentation at Community Center
Paul Dowlearn gave a presentation on Native Plants to about 25 library patrons Sunday at the Gordon Community Center. Paul is the owner of Wichita Valley Nursery and host of the Saturday morning radio show “The Hometown Gardener.”
Landscaping with native plants
Our Sunday Forum Series resumes in July with Paul Dowlearn speaking on Landscaping with Native Plants. Paul is a landscaping professional and owner of Wichita Valley Nursery in Wichita Falls. Â He also hosts a Saturday morning radio show on 94.9 FM called “Hometown Gardener.” Â He is a former president of the Red River Chapter …
Brief book review: Just Kids
Just Kids by Patti Smith is a love story, a rags-to-riches tale and a memoir of a certain time and place all rolled into one. When Patti Smith got off the bus in New York City almost the first person she met was a beautiful boy with a mass of curls. Â Not long afterward she …
Brief book review: “A Visit From the Goon Squad”
Each chapter of the new novel by Jennifer Egan is really its own short story. Â Each story is told from the point of view of a different character but each character is connected in some way (sometimes tenuously) to Bennie Salazar, a teenage bass player in a mediocre punk rock band who matures into …
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New books on religion and the bible
Just in time for the holidays the library has received several new books on Christianity and the Bible. The Woman Who Wrote the Bible is a first novel by Mary Burns which imagines a rich and captivating life for the woman scholar J who lived in the Solomonic Courts. In this novel J becomes the …
Brief book review: “One Who Walked Alone”
One Who Walked Alone by Novalyne Price Ellis This is a true story of a tragic love affair which took place just a few miles from us in the small town of Cross Plains in the 1930’s. Robert Howard was a successful author of the popular Conan the Barbarian stories who attracted the attention of …
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