Mike Shea on the month’s new releases
Ann Rowe Seaman
Continuum
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Austin native ANN ROWE SEAMAN has turned a wealth of research into a morbidly fascinating biography of the world’s most famous atheist in AMERICA’S MOST HATED WOMAN: THE LIFE AND GRUESOME DEATH OF MADALYN MURRAY O’HAIR (Continuum). Seaman convincingly portrays the late O’Hair as part celebrity-craving nutcase and part tireless crusader for separation of church and state. O’Hair won a landmark case in the U.S. Supreme Court, but her personal life was in shambles, and she almost certainly directed millions of dollars in charitable donations to her own purse. And just when you think the story could not be more complex or bizarre, O’Hair disappears without a trace from her Austin headquarters. Seaman’s account proves that the truth is stranger . . . by a long shot.
Kinky Friedman
Simon & Schuster
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Chances are good that TEN LITTLE NEW YORKERS (Simon & Schuster) is the last print appearance of KINKY FRIEDMAN’s fictional alter ego (see “Killing Me Softly,”). Which perhaps explains why the Kinksters, scribe and sleuth both, appear uncommonly morose in writing and partaking of their usual ration of Cuban cigars and strong waters. This homage to Agatha Christie (eight corpses in Greenwich Village and all clues point to Kinky) proves again that Friedman can write with the best of them when the spirit moves him, but maybe the thrill is gone for good. Why else would the flesh-and-blood Kinky launch a campaign for governor of Texas and have his imaginary namesake bugled to Jesus in the “what just happened?” finale of his latest and possibly ultimate mystery?
Billy Joe Shaver
University of Texas Press
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When your memoir begins, “I was not even born yet when my father first tried to kill me,” you had better be prepared to deliver the goods, and indeed, BILLY JOE SHAVER recounts enough tales of hell-raising, songwriting, tragedy, and near-brushes with stardom to fill several lifetimes in HONKY TONK HERO (University of Texas Press). Fame and fortune have eluded the Corsicana native, but he has been an iconic artist among musicians and fans since Waylon Jennings recorded an entire album of Shaver’s songs, in 1973. This is essential reading, though at 72-pages-slim (plus 112 pages of song lyrics), Honky Tonk Hero barely scratches the surface of this rough-hewn genius’s remarkable 65 years on earth.
