“ 300 DEAD GUYS LATER: AND WHY MY SENSE OF HUMOR IS SKEWED” BY CHARLIE LEWIS
“ ON THE HIPPIE TRAIL: INSTANBUL TO KATHMANDU AND THE MAKING OF A TRAVEL WRITER” BY RICK STEVES
ROMANCE“ THE VANISHING ACT OF ESME LENNOX” BY MAGGIE O’ FARRELL
Lose yourself in a nook with a book
Spring is finally here and it’ s the perfect time of year to sit out on the patio or in a hammock with a good book. Here then are several must read suggestions from the Times-Review staff to help you get started.
NONFICTION
“ 300 DEAD GUYS LATER: AND WHY MY SENSE OF HUMOR IS SKEWED” BY CHARLIE LEWIS
After serving 32 years in law enforcement, Burleson resident Charlie Lewis has collected his share of stories— and a skewed sense of humor to match.
In his first self-published book, Lewis shares tales that will keep you laughing for ages, as well as gripping tales that cut deeper. The stories revisit the highs, lows and everything in between.
Expect a mix of tales from the morbid, to the humorous and to the most biazarre. There’ s even stories about his involvement in two shootings— him shooting a bad guy and being shot himself.
Lewis and his brother stumbled upon a dead body when he was about 13, which he said shaped his curiosity about death and led to his eventual career as a police office and crime scene investigator. Something about death has always fascinated him, he said, and he just can’ t explain it.
TRAVEL
“ ON THE HIPPIE TRAIL: INSTANBUL TO KATHMANDU AND THE MAKING OF A TRAVEL WRITER” BY RICK STEVES
Long before he gained fame for his“ Rick Steve’ s Europe” TV series and travel books, 20-something-year-old Steves taught piano lessons to finance trips to Europe. In 1978, at the age of 23, he and a friend backpacked the legendary Hippie Trail from Instanbul to Kathmandu that gained popularity in the counterculture‘ 60s and persisted through the late‘ 70s.
A trek that the Iranian Revolution of 1979, not to mention subsequent events, rendered difficult at best, if not impossible to replicate today.
“ On the Hippie Trail” references Steves’ journal of that oncein-a-lifetime trip along with his subsequent memories of his younger self. Along the way, readers encounter unfamiliar cultures and landmarks not to mention Steves’ adventures of getting lost, hopping from moving trains and checking out the girls.
The trip increased Steves’ lifelong wanderlust and inspired his subsequent career. Travel does the soul good appears to be the book’ s overriding message. The more different people and places you see and meet, the broader your horizons grow and the more accepting you become, Steves argues.
Business and relationship woes complicate Iris Lockhart’ s life, not to mention unresolved issues with her stepbrother and dementia-ridden grandmother.
On top of those entanglements, a surprise phone call that her greataunt, Esme Lennox, is about to be released from a mental institution after more than 60 years of residency throws yet another wrench onto Lockhart’ s already full plate.
ROMANCE“ THE VANISHING ACT OF ESME LENNOX” BY MAGGIE O’ FARRELL
Lockhart never knew she had a great-aunt. Her grandmother always claimed to be an only child.
What could have, from a lesser writer, played out a bland romcom with two wacky aged relatives thrown in for good measure instead becomes an arresting tale that haunts and breaks the heart under O’ Farrell’ s story telling prowess.
Jumping from the present to long ago, often within the same paragraph, and the oft times vague or partial thoughts and memories of the three main characters, make it so the rhythm of“ Vanishing Act” requires some adjustment to fall into, but the payoff more than rewards the effort.
It’ s a story both modern and gothic of social mores then and now and heroes and villians and the often times real life confusion of exactly who is which. Through-
The Published Page Bookshop
Historic Downtown Cleburne
The“ Old School” Bookstore
More Books Than, WOW!
10 E. Chambers St-On the Square • 817-349-6366 • publishedpage. com
Community Life 17