• Home
  • popular
  • EVENTS
  • submit-new-event
  • CHARITY GUIDE
  • Children
  • Education
  • Health
  • Veterans
  • Social Services
  • Arts + Culture
  • Animals
  • LGBTQ
  • New Charity
  • TRENDING NEWS
  • News
  • City Life
  • Entertainment
  • Sports
  • Home + Design
  • Travel
  • Real Estate
  • Restaurants + Bars
  • Arts
  • Society
  • Innovation
  • Fashion + Beauty
  • subscribe
  • about
  • series
  • Embracing Your Inner Cowboy
  • Green Living
  • Summer Fun
  • Real Estate Confidential
  • RX In the City
  • State of the Arts
  • Fall For Fashion
  • Cai's Odyssey
  • Comforts of Home
  • Good Eats
  • Holiday Gift Guide 2010
  • Holiday Gift Guide 2
  • Good Eats 2
  • HMNS Pirates
  • The Future of Houston
  • We Heart Hou 2
  • Music Inspires
  • True Grit
  • Hoops City
  • Green Living 2011
  • Cruizin for a Cure
  • Summer Fun 2011
  • Just Beat It
  • Real Estate 2011
  • Shelby on the Seine
  • Rx in the City 2011
  • Entrepreneur Video Series
  • Going Wild Zoo
  • State of the Arts 2011
  • Fall for Fashion 2011
  • Elaine Turner 2011
  • Comforts of Home 2011
  • King Tut
  • Chevy Girls
  • Good Eats 2011
  • Ready to Jingle
  • Houston at 175
  • The Love Month
  • Clifford on The Catwalk Htx
  • Let's Go Rodeo 2012
  • King's Harbor
  • FotoFest 2012
  • City Centre
  • Hidden Houston
  • Green Living 2012
  • Summer Fun 2012
  • Bookmark
  • 1987: The year that changed Houston
  • Best of Everything 2012
  • Real Estate 2012
  • Rx in the City 2012
  • Lost Pines Road Trip Houston
  • London Dreams
  • State of the Arts 2012
  • HTX Fall For Fashion 2012
  • HTX Good Eats 2012
  • HTX Contemporary Arts 2012
  • HCC 2012
  • Dine to Donate
  • Tasting Room
  • HTX Comforts of Home 2012
  • Charming Charlie
  • Asia Society
  • HTX Ready to Jingle 2012
  • HTX Mistletoe on the go
  • HTX Sun and Ski
  • HTX Cars in Lifestyle
  • HTX New Beginnings
  • HTX Wonderful Weddings
  • HTX Clifford on the Catwalk 2013
  • Zadok Sparkle into Spring
  • HTX Let's Go Rodeo 2013
  • HCC Passion for Fashion
  • BCAF 2013
  • HTX Best of 2013
  • HTX City Centre 2013
  • HTX Real Estate 2013
  • HTX France 2013
  • Driving in Style
  • HTX Island Time
  • HTX Super Season 2013
  • HTX Music Scene 2013
  • HTX Clifford on the Catwalk 2013 2
  • HTX Baker Institute
  • HTX Comforts of Home 2013
  • Mothers Day Gift Guide 2021 Houston
  • Staying Ahead of the Game
  • Wrangler Houston
  • First-time Homebuyers Guide Houston 2021
  • Visit Frisco Houston
  • promoted
  • eventdetail
  • Greystar Novel River Oaks
  • Thirdhome Go Houston
  • Dogfish Head Houston
  • LovBe Houston
  • Claire St Amant podcast Houston
  • The Listing Firm Houston
  • South Padre Houston
  • NextGen Real Estate Houston
  • Pioneer Houston
  • Collaborative for Children
  • Decorum
  • Bold Rock Cider
  • Nasher Houston
  • Houston Tastemaker Awards 2021
  • CityNorth
  • Urban Office
  • Villa Cotton
  • Luck Springs Houston
  • EightyTwo
  • Rectanglo.com
  • Silver Eagle Karbach
  • Mirador Group
  • Nirmanz
  • Bandera Houston
  • Milan Laser
  • Lafayette Travel
  • Highland Park Village Houston
  • Proximo Spirits
  • Douglas Elliman Harris Benson
  • Original ChopShop
  • Bordeaux Houston
  • Strike Marketing
  • Rice Village Gift Guide 2021
  • Downtown District
  • Broadstone Memorial Park
  • Gift Guide
  • Music Lane
  • Blue Circle Foods
  • Houston Tastemaker Awards 2022
  • True Rest
  • Lone Star Sports
  • Silver Eagle Hard Soda
  • Modelo recipes
  • Modelo Fighting Spirit
  • Athletic Brewing
  • Rodeo Houston
  • Silver Eagle Bud Light Next
  • Waco CVB
  • EnerGenie
  • HLSR Wine Committee
  • All Hands
  • El Paso
  • Avenida Houston
  • Visit Lubbock Houston
  • JW Marriott San Antonio
  • Silver Eagle Tupps
  • Space Center Houston
  • Central Market Houston
  • Boulevard Realty
  • Travel Texas Houston
  • Alliantgroup
  • Golf Live
  • DC Partners
  • Under the Influencer
  • Blossom Hotel
  • San Marcos Houston
  • Photo Essay: Holiday Gift Guide 2009
  • We Heart Hou
  • Walker House
  • HTX Good Eats 2013
  • HTX Ready to Jingle 2013
  • HTX Culture Motive
  • HTX Auto Awards
  • HTX Ski Magic
  • HTX Wonderful Weddings 2014
  • HTX Texas Traveler
  • HTX Cifford on the Catwalk 2014
  • HTX United Way 2014
  • HTX Up to Speed
  • HTX Rodeo 2014
  • HTX City Centre 2014
  • HTX Dos Equis
  • HTX Tastemakers 2014
  • HTX Reliant
  • HTX Houston Symphony
  • HTX Trailblazers
  • HTX_RealEstateConfidential_2014
  • HTX_IW_Marks_FashionSeries
  • HTX_Green_Street
  • Dating 101
  • HTX_Clifford_on_the_Catwalk_2014
  • FIVE CultureMap 5th Birthday Bash
  • HTX Clifford on the Catwalk 2014 TEST
  • HTX Texans
  • Bergner and Johnson
  • HTX Good Eats 2014
  • United Way 2014-15_Single Promoted Articles
  • Holiday Pop Up Shop Houston
  • Where to Eat Houston
  • Copious Row Single Promoted Articles
  • HTX Ready to Jingle 2014
  • htx woodford reserve manhattans
  • Zadok Swiss Watches
  • HTX Wonderful Weddings 2015
  • HTX Charity Challenge 2015
  • United Way Helpline Promoted Article
  • Boulevard Realty
  • Fusion Academy Promoted Article
  • Clifford on the Catwalk Fall 2015
  • United Way Book Power Promoted Article
  • Jameson HTX
  • Primavera 2015
  • Promenade Place
  • Hotel Galvez
  • Tremont House
  • HTX Tastemakers 2015
  • HTX Digital Graffiti/Alys Beach
  • MD Anderson Breast Cancer Promoted Article
  • HTX RealEstateConfidential 2015
  • HTX Vargos on the Lake
  • Omni Hotel HTX
  • Undies for Everyone
  • Reliant Bright Ideas Houston
  • 2015 Houston Stylemaker
  • HTX Renewable You
  • Urban Flats Builder
  • Urban Flats Builder
  • HTX New York Fashion Week spring 2016
  • Kyrie Massage
  • Red Bull Flying Bach
  • Hotze Health and Wellness
  • ReadFest 2015
  • Alzheimer's Promoted Article
  • Formula 1 Giveaway
  • Professional Skin Treatments by NuMe Express

    Book buzz

    Fall preview: Top books include Ann Richards bio, more shades of Grey & Cronin'svampire sequel

    Tarra Gaines
    Jul 8, 2012 | 4:30 pm
    • Booksellers are anticipating a new biography of Ann Richards by Jan Reid.
    • Expect a lot of new novels that copy Fifty Shades of Grey.
    • Justin Cronin's The Twelve is out in October.
    • At BookExpo, Dan Rather, whose latest book, Rather Outspoken: My Life in theNews, is in bookstores now, explained how he and KHOU invented modern hurricanecoverage.
      Photo courtesy of Dan Rather
    • Stephen Colbert composed random euphemisms for his penis during a BookExpobreakfast panel discussion.
    • Inprint's Rich Levy
      Photo by Felix Sanchez

    Dan Rather explaining how he and KHOU invented modern hurricane coverage, Glee’s Chris Colfer recounting how a 10-year-old’s best and most critical book editor is his grandmother, and Stephen Colbert composing random euphemisms for his penis during a breakfast panel discussion were just some of the highlights of the recent BookExpo 2012.

    Each year in the early summer, celebrities, publishers, educators, librarians, booksellers and more celebrities convene in New York to celebrate and sell books. Perhaps a bit like fashion week or Comic-Con for books, with almost as many media stars stopping by, BookExpo is the publishing industry chance to showcase their upcoming line of new books and authors while independent booksellers take stock of that coming book stock. And members of Houston’s writing and book selling community are always there in the literary thick of things.

     

      “There’s been several good months in book selling. Borders closing didn’t destroy the world like everybody thought. Sales are up all along the front of the indy shops months after month.”

      Upon their return home, CultureMap asked Inprint’s Rich Levy and Marilyn Jones, Brazos Bookstore manager Jeremy Ellis, and Blue Willow Bookshop owner and American Booksellers Association board member Valerie Koehler to give us their expert assessment, from a Texas perspective, of what the future holds for hometown book lovers.

    Their findings? The state of the book-reading union is pretty good. A cautious sense of optimism pervaded this year’s BookExpo, according to Rich Levy.

    Jeremy Ellis perhaps summed it up best, saying “There’s some optimism. There’s been several good months in book selling. Borders closing didn’t destroy the world like everybody thought. Sales are up all along the front of the indy shops months after month. I think people are celebrating the small victories every time they get them.”

     More Grey copycats

    None of the Houston contingent spotted any big trends in the coming crop of new titles due in the fall and winter; however, there definitely was a theme color at BookExpo this year: Grey, all fifty shades of it. In fact, this publishing phenomenon was the ironic inspiration for Colbert’s purple-prosed odes to his penis while hosting the Adult Book & Author Breakfast. (Colbert's new book, America Again: Re-becoming the Greatness We Never Weren't, available in October, however, is not Grey related.)

    Our Houston book experts all said to expect lots of smutty novels similar to Fifty Shades of Grey in the coming months into next year because, as Koehler explains, “The publishers are all copycats. They always have been.”

    While everyone was a bit amused and exasperated at the amount of Fifty Shades knockoffs the publishers offered at BookExpo, Ellis admits about the original, “We sell it. We’re not opposed to selling it. It’s not really our bailiwick. I’ve much better sexy books for you if you really want to read something. There’s a lot of good literature out there that will stimulate your mind, Etcetera. There’s better but who cares. If people are reading, Hazzah, people are reading. That makes the market livelier.”

     

      Our Houston book experts all said to expect lots of smutty novels similar to Fifty Shades of Grey in the coming months into next year.

      While no one we talked to would predict who might be the next breakout literary star or what will be the hit book for 2012 and 2013, there are several Texas writers getting notice. Levy and Jones noted the buzz around Houstonian Justin Cronin’s new book The Twelve, out in October. Cronin was in attendance and signing.

    Ellis is excited about Flannery O’Connor Award winning writer Andrew Porter’s new novel, In Between Days. The book is set in Houston, specifically the Montrose/West U area. Porter will be in town on September 12 to read at Brazos.

    Koehler is looking forward to The Cutting Season the second novel from former Houstonian, and daughter of 2009 mayoral candidate Gene Locke, Attica Locke.

     Promoting Houston to publishers

    Both Ellis and Koehler think the new biography of Ann Richards, Let the People In: The Life and Times of Ann Richards by Jan Reid is going to a must-read for Texans. Koehler says, “We’ve had some early reads on that and they have been very, very good,” and also finds it to be a bit of a “primer on Texas politics.”

    Though BookExpo is usually the place for publishers to promote their books to the bookstores, sometimes there’s a need to promote Houston to the publishers, especially to make certain H-Town is a frequent stop when top authors are touring.

     

      Both Ellis and Koehler think the new biography of Ann Richards, Let the People In: The Life and Times of Ann Richards by Jan Reid is going to a must-read for Texans.

      According to Koehler, publishers occasionally forget the U.S consists of more than just two coasts and that there’s a very diverse population of readers in Texas, and Houston specifically, who are eager to meet their favorite writers, that “We’re not just cowboys here.” Koehler says that they “constantly are reminding them of our numbers and what we’re selling. We have a lot of readership here.”

    Inprint already announced its 2012-2013 season before June, so Levy and Jones spent time at BookExpo getting ideas for the next season. But they also go armed with the audience numbers for recent Inprint events.

    Levy says, “I think we noticed, more so this year than in the past, that they kind of are getting what we do and they’re acknowledging, the publishers in general, that Houston is maybe a good venue for them.”

    Ellis says that one of his objectives is “to show that Houston matters as a place to go to and that authors should come here and there’s a book buying public, a literary scene, that’s happening here that they may not have a clear picture of yet. Part of my job is to tell people, ‘Come here. Look and see what happens here in Texas, what happens here in Houston.’”

    unspecifiedseries568664034
    series/bookmark
    news/entertainment

    most read posts

    Netflix chef's modern Mexican restaurant opens in Houston this month

    More rain brings further flood risk as Texas death toll tops 100

    Pioneering East End development brings cohousing to Houston

    Cat Lady Chronicles

    Portrait of a Cat Lady: Author Diane Lovejoy chronicles a life of art and furryfelines

    Tarra Gaines
    Nov 12, 2012 | 10:30 am
    • Author Diane Lovejoy and one of her precious cats
      Pinterest.com
    • Diane Lovejoy's Cat Lady Chronicles combines her two passions: art and furryfelines.
      Courtesy Photo
    • Diane Lovejoy and her father in Jackson Square in 1957. Even as a youngster, sheloved cats.
      Courtesy Photo

    Worshiped in ancient societies and now the demigods of the Internet, cats have always fascinated us. Yet being a woman who owns multiple cats can sometimes invite the occasional joke or insult that she has become a "cat lady." In the new book Cat Lady Chronicles, Houston writer Diane Lovejoy sets out to paint a new portrait of who a cat lady really is.

    Lovejoy, the director of publications at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, has been part of the art world longer than the cat world. In the book, she combines those worlds, just as she has in life.

     

      In the new book Cat Lady Chronicles, Houston writer Diane Lovejoy sets out to paint a new portrait of who a cat lady really is.

    It is a memoir of how Lovejoy and her husband Michael rescued one cat and after several years of these stray "little creatures" pressing their faces to the glass of their back door, found themselves the happy cat lady and cat gentleman who head a 10-cat household.

    It is illustrated with images of cats rendered by artists from Renoir to Kahlo to Chagall. Seventeen of the works in the book are from the MFAH’s own collection and are seldom on view.

    CultureMap recently sat down with Lovejoy to talk cats, art, and the art of being a cat lady.

     CultureMap: Throughout the book you use the term cat lady almost as if it were a calling or title. Is it?

     Diane Lovejoy: I think that it’s both. I call myself "cat lady" and that’s a nickname I gave myself when we started on this process of rescuing all these cats. But I think it is a calling to serve others whether they be cats, or whether it’s my case, at work, the museum curators, or whether it’s volunteering. The people who feel there’s a need to serve others, in whatever capacity that might be, see it as a calling.

     

      It’s a term that has typically had a bad rap, but what is so bad about being passionate about animals and being committed to caring for them?

      It’s a term that has typically had a bad rap, but what is so bad about being passionate about animals and being committed to caring for them? Typically people think of cat lady as someone who may be hoarding and with all those reality shows about hoarding what is that line of demarcation between acquiring cats and hoarding them? But I am proud to wear the badge and if it’s a title, I’m OK with that.

     CM: What are the responsibilities and rewards of being a cat lady or cat gentleman?

     DL: I think the responsibilities are to make sure the cat is healthy. You’ve got to be very attentive to their care. Scooping the litter boxes is one of the fatiguing responsibilities. Spending time and caring for them.

    In terms of the rewards, it sounds like a cliche but they really are infinite. The cats give unconditional love. I love getting home especially if I’ve had a tough day and there they are with no judgments, just waiting for me to come home.

     CM: People sometimes say that it’s dogs that provide unconditional love with no judgment, and cats are more aloof, but you think that’s true about cats as well?

     DL: I think that it is. Cats have more of that silent, looking you up and down, way about them. I think when you are interactive with them it becomes a completely different story. With ours we socialize them to the extent that they really are our fur kids.

     CM: What was your objective in writing the book? Did you want to change perceptions of what a cat lady is?

     DL: If I had to define the publishing rational, I wouldn’t say I was out to champion the brand of the cat lady, but I hope I do do that so people might think: "I, too, am a cat lady," and it’s not an embarrassment anymore. It was really to tell a feel-good story about unconditional love.

    I thought that my perspective on being a cat lady might be a little bit different in terms of trying to bring in my working life in the art world. Herding cats is easy; herding museum curators maybe not so much. But the two worlds began to compliment each other.

     CM: Why was it important to weave art into your story?

     DL: I thought really this explosion of cats in my life could be paralleled by opening the book and all of a sudden there are these colored plates of images of cats. I had so much fun doing the photo research for the cats because it was like bringing together cats again from different streets in the Montrose area, cats from all over the art world from different collections coming to life together.

     CM: Why have some artists been so fascinated by cats?

     DL: Cats are who they are, sort of like artists are. They’re soulful creatures. They’re beautiful. It’s true since ancient times artists have always depicted cats. They were way ahead of the Internet in championing their cause.

     CM: There are times in the book where you make the comparison between being a collector of art and being a collector of cats. Is the desire to collect art similar to the need to help, and perhaps even collect, cats?

     DL: I try to be careful and explain that I do understand the distinction that the world in which I work is about collecting inanimate objects. Of course the artist’s hand is evident, and the works are informed by the artist’s spirit and so forth, but ultimately these are objects that can be picked up and hung, but with a cat it’s sustained care.

    I had begun to wonder by collecting—so to speak—cats, was it because I’m surrounded by this acquisitive environment, and could I justify this process by thinking I’m a collector? But really, I know that collecting art and collecting cats are two different things. I’m collecting living creatures and bringing them into an environment where they not hung on walls; they’re a part of our life and they’ve become vital to our existence.

    unspecifiedseries568664034
    series/bookmark
    news/entertainment
    CULTUREMAP EMAILS ARE AWESOME
    Get Houston intel delivered daily.
    Loading...