Kirjahaku

In this little gem of a book Leon Hale reacquaints us with the back road individualists who have given Texas much of its character over the past century. A novelist and columnist for fifty years, Hale has built his reputation on an exceptionally smooth writing style combined with a sharp eye for what's unusual and remarkable hidden among the otherwise ordinary people and places of Texas, for example, the alligator that slept by the stove at Scheller's Place; the ghost of Fiddler's Island; or the billboard newspaper of Tillie Roome.Turn South at the Second Bridge chronicles a world that abounds with surprises. Check out Virge Whitfield, who combined wisdom with a limitless love of dogs; or Pat Craddock, whose skill at cooking whiskey cost him a leg; or Jack Hillhouse, the one-armed giant beach-dweller who had an unusual way of obtaining fresh eggs. Hale takes us along with him, down winter beaches from Galveston to Port Aransas, deep into the Piney Woods of East Texas, through the bottom lands of the Trinity, the Brazos, and the Colorado Rivers, as he searches for the unique characters who inhabit the part of Texas you don't find in guide books. Many of the places and most of the people chronicled in this delightful Texas classic have vanished by now, and we are the poorer for it. Fortunately for us, however, Hale has captured with warm affection the language and spirit of this memorable part of his state's social and oral history, in the shape of stories and characters you won't forget.

Hale's second, award-winning novel that tells the story of a flawed hero and the love of his life.http: //www.leonhale.com/

The habits of a lifetime ebb slowly, and so we have this honest, moving and amusing account of a retirement that began, in 2014, when beloved Texas writer Leon Hale was 93. In his inimitable voice, Hale reveals his personal joys and regrets as he traverses the territory of old age, travelling through time and place from his spot on the old front porch at Winedale. We're with him at the dinner party where he told an 11 PM story at 8:30; we learn why he doesn't like the ocean, but loves the shore. For the first time, he shares the World War II experience that haunts him still; and relates the sad drama of his first divorce. We watch turf battles between blue birds and chickadees, and observe his mother's long effort to teach a parakeet her favorite Bible verse. There are health challenges, yes, and the give and take that goes on in a happy marriage. Through it all, however, flows the unstoppable optimism that has sustained him through every crisis. For everyone who has wondered what it's like to approach their hundredth birthday, here is one inspiring and truthful answer, told with the special sheen of wit and human feeling that we have come to expect from this fine writer.

Natural wonders were Leon Hale’s lifetime subject matter. He looked for them wherever he went, and found them surprisingly often. In the lives of plain people and eccentrics, in the brilliant smile of a tiny 100-year-old black lady, or the hi-jinks of his cousin C.T., in what happened on a dirt farm in 1930 or why he found value in chiseling brick, he revealed truths and wonders we might not have noticed on our own. When published in 1982, A Smile from Katie Hattan was Leon Hale’s first column collection after nearly thirty years of writing for The Houston Post. It was widely celebrated for presenting the delightful daily work of this writer, at last, to a wider audience. What is remarkable, now, forty years later, is how fresh and interesting the 155 columns remain, as we roam with the author through a Texas that remains as vivid and enjoyable as the day he wrote about it.