Senior News--October 2012 Column

For some time now I have been writing a monthly book review column for the Senior News newspaper. The Senior News is aimed to the 50 and over crowd with news relevant to seniors regarding various issues, humor pieces, and my review column among other things. The newspaper is a giveaway at doctor offices, stores, etc. and can be received by via a paid subscription. There are multiple editions across the state of Texas and therefore there is some fluctuation in content in each edition.

My column every month focuses on books of interest to the Texas audience. Therefore books selected for the column, fiction or non-fiction, are written by Texas residents, feature Texans in some way, or would have some other connection to the Texas based readership. At least two books are covered each month in the short space I am given.

Below is/was my October  2012 column with the addition here of the relevant book covers……

Baby Shark’s Showdown at Chigger Flats

Robert Fate

E-book (estimated print length 256 pages)

It is May 1960 in Fort Worth, Texas as this fifth book in the series begins. It is a calm quiet morning as Baby Shark, Kristin Van Dijk, brings around the old car she and her private investigator partner, Otis Millett, are going to use for a stakeout later in the day. Everything is peaceful until the shooting starts.

When the shooting stops Baby Shark is wounded, cars are smashed and destroyed in the street with the wreckage everywhere, and bad dead guys litter the area. In a hard hitting action tale that crosses Texas from Fort Worth to the area around Midland, the threat has to be stopped. To do that Baby Shark spares no prisoners and gives better than she gets in this violence filled adrenalin ride for justice. Over now five very good books Baby Shark has proven again and again you can’t rationalize with evil--you have to treat it for what it is and kill it.

The Feedstore Chronicles

Travis Erwin

TAG Publishing, LLC

ISBN 978-1-934606-31-5

Paperback (also available on Kindle)

206 Pages

Building on his experience working at a feedstore as a teen, Texas author Terry Ervin fictionalized those years and all involved to come up with this often funny coming of age tale. The book will strike a strong resonance with you if you are of a certain age and grew up in Texas.

It is the spring of 1989 and the young narrator, Travis, is all of sixteen. Travis has a crush on a classmate and believes having some cash from working will get him closer to her. While he works he learns lessons about life through his boss Doyle Suggs. As the months turn into years and Travis works closer and closer to High School graduation he learns the good, the bad, and the downright ugly and smelly from Doyle.

There is no great summing up of this book that is possible. No great mysteries are solved, no meaning of life is pronounced, and no great revelations are explained in this occasionally very graphic book.  A fact that was made clear from word one of the introduction. The Feedstore Chronicles is simply a fun read and an ode to a time when, as pimply faced Texas teens, we knew it all. 

Kevin R. Tipple © 2012

Get your copy of MIND SLICES today!