Houston Matters

Actor Sean Patrick Flanery Pens Novel About Growing Up Near Houston

Posted on · Sean Patrick Flanery, an actor you might know from his roles as Young Indy in the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, and his roles in The Boondock Saints, Dexter and Powder, first fell in love with the stage while attending Houston’s University of St. Thomas. He’s also a writer, having penned his first novel, called Jane […]

Houston Matters

Summer Reading: Children’s Book Helps Kids Deal with a Loved One’s Dementia

Posted on · We continue our summer reading series today as we talk with Houstonian Toby Haberkorn, author of When My Grammy Forgets, I Remember. It’s a children’s book designed to help kids and their parents talk about and understand what happens when a grandparent develops dementia. With the increasing numbers of people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and other […]

Houston Matters

Summer Reading: Hail of Fire — A Man Struggles to Cope with His Decisions During a Natural Disaster

Posted on · In September of 2011, severe drought – coupled with a tropical storm – helped fuel a wildfire that destroyed the home of Randy Fritz and his family in the Lost Pines area, about 103 miles northwest of Houston near Bastrop. While neither he, his wife nor his three daughters were hurt in the fire that […]

Houston Matters

Summer Reading: James Boswell and His ‘Thrilling Intellectual Adventure’

Posted on · We continue our summer reading series today as we talk with Robert Zaretsky, Professor in the Honors College at the University of Houston, and the author of Boswell's Enlightenment. It’s a book about James Boswell, best known as the biographer of English writer Samuel Johnson. Boswell, a young Scot, went on what Zaretsky calls a […]

Houston Matters

Summer Reading: Remembering WWII POW Camp in Huntsville

Posted on · Throughout the summer months, Houston Matters is dedicating time each week to books about Greater Houston, set in Greater Houston or written or edited by Houstonians. Our summer reading series starts today with Jeffrey Littlejohn, an associate professor of history and director of the graduate program at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville. He's the […]

Houston Matters

What Happens When Two Houstonians Take a Motorhome Trip Through Central America?

Posted on · If you’re going to travel through Central America, why not by motorhome? That’s what one Houston couple decided to do in 2003. John and Harriet Halkyard wrote a book about their experience called 99 Days to Panama, An Exploration of Central America by Motorhome. They chronicled their journey and offer traveling advice for those who […]

Houston Matters

Descendant of Former Slave Owners Seeks Out Descendants of Their Former Slaves

Posted on · As a kid, Houston Chronicle business columnist Chris Tomlinson was fascinated by family stories of his great-grandfather coming to Texas as a pioneering settler of the American West. But as he grew older, he started to understand the story wasn’t as glorious as he thought — his ancestors were slaveholders. Just five years ago, Tomlinson […]