Local books

New releases are stacking up. Read some of these while I continue to add more to this space.

Some Texas books are in this mix, including one by Penny L. Clark, an area historian I’ve had the pleasure of meeting over the years. She’s writing in “Images of Aviation: Beaumont’s Civil Air Patrol in World War II,’ filling in gaps on the short-lived but vital operation. You just may know some of the men and women pictured in this book. It’s from Arcadia Publishing, www.arcadiapublishing.com. It’s one of those neatly packaged issues on very interesting topics. Some others in this line are on a rack at the Nederland CVS on FM 365. “The Vanished Texas Coast: Lost Port Towns, Mysterious Shipwrecks and True Tales” by Mark Lardas features ships, the military, the Galveston hurricane and something I didn’t know. The USS Seawolf Submarine, honored in Galveston, was sunk by friendly fire. The Battle of Sabine Pass is a chapter topic. History Press, historypress.com, put out this book. “Texas True Crime Miscellany” – The Flapper Bandit had claimed she was from Beaumont. But her real mission wasn’t collecting news. She was set to claim some bank money and locked folks in vaults to get her way. Another woman aimed and got a man in a courthouse. She said he’d done her wrong, but some bystanders got her bullets, too. Disappearing men, oil field voodoo and double crossings appear in this Clay Coppedge book from History Press. Bone up on 18 obscure Texas cases.