News

Through Saturday, Aug. 17

After the Flying Saucers Came: a global history of the UFO phenomenon by Greg Eghigian The Truth About Immigration: why successful societies welcome newcomers by Zeke Hernandez When a Loved One Won’t Seek Mental Health Treatment: how to promote recovery and reclaim your family’s well-being by C. Alec Pollard Children of the State: stories of survival and hope in the juvenile justice system by Jeff Hobbs The Exceptions: Nancy Hopkins, MIT, and the fight for women in science by Kate Zernike The Singularity is Nearer: when we merge with AI by Ray Kurzweil Beverly Hills Spy: the double-agent war hero who helped Japan attack Pearl Harbor by Ronald Drabkin We Were Illegal: uncovering a Texas family’s mythmaking and migration by Jessica Goudeau

Have you read a good book here lately? Just recently some ladies in our church were cleaning out the old church library in the old building, and knowing that I appreciate history, they brought me several historical books to add to my own library. One of them is called, “The Man Who Dared The Lightning”. It’s an autobiography about Dr. Ben Franklin. Do you remember him? The guy who hung a key to a kite string to see if lightning would hit it? He is also one of our Founding Fathers and one of the writers of the Declaration of Independence. Another book is called, “The Man From Monticello”. Surely you will recognize his name. This man’s name is Thomas Jefferson, who was the author of the Declaration of Independence, as well as the creator of the American political system, and, the third President of the young United States of America! By the way, did you know that he and John Adams, the second President of the United States, although bitter rivalries in our young government, were the closest of friends, and that both of them died on July 4, 1826, fifty years after the Declaration of Independence was declared by the thirteen colonies to the British crown? Yet, there is one more book that I’m sure that most of you won’t recognize, I didn’t myself until I read the fly-leaf in the book I’m about to tell you about. His name was Jose Antonio Navarro. Now, if you are an inhibitor of this part of Texas, you will recognize the name, “Navarro”, as in the names “Navarro County” and “Navarro College” in Corsicana. He happened to be very much involved in the independence of the Republic of Texas as well as the State of Texas, helping to secure its freedom and helping to write both Texas Constitutions as well as being an official member of both governments. It’s a fascinating story that I am just beginning to read.