[JNT]≫ Read Gratis The El Paso Red Flame Gas Station and Other Stories J Reeder Archuleta 9781457559198 Books

The El Paso Red Flame Gas Station and Other Stories J Reeder Archuleta 9781457559198 Books

Download As PDF : The El Paso Red Flame Gas Station and Other Stories J Reeder Archuleta 9781457559198 Books

The El Paso Red Flame Gas Station and Other Stories J Reeder Archuleta 9781457559198 Books

Archuleta sets the tone with the description of the harsh winds and conditions that had me sipping water in the first story. The author must have lived some of this life to have captured the grit, pain and with several of the characters a wonderful value system honed by the challenges of the locale and time.
Sandwiched between the roughness were characters that reminded me of the best of humanity. Extending one self for others, generosity with little to share and my favorite-the local boy tames the town thugs.
I thoroughly enjoyed Rio Sonora and the El Paso Red Flame Gas Station was another great read.


Tags : The El Paso Red Flame Gas Station and Other Stories [J. Reeder Archuleta] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <b>The El Paso Red Flame Gas Station and Other Stories</b> by J. Reeder Archuleta</i><br /> </i><br /> The El Paso Red Flame Gas Station and Other Stories</i> by J. Reeder Archuleta,J. Reeder Archuleta,The El Paso Red Flame Gas Station and Other Stories,Dog Ear Publishing, LLC,1457559196,Country life - Texas,Short stories,FICTION Short Stories (single author)

The El Paso Red Flame Gas Station and Other Stories J Reeder Archuleta 9781457559198 Books Reviews

I love short stories. I love how much talent and skill it takes to tell a whole story in a relatively few words. I love the way they force writers to distill their ideas to the most important, the most vivid, the most visceral.

This collection of short stories by J. Reeder Archuleta, The El Paso Red Flame Gas Station and Other Stories, is one of the best representatives of this art that I’ve seen from a contemporary author. Archuleta is specific with regard to detail – brands of whisky, kinds of beer, types of toys. His use of language is earthy and real, as gritty as the air during a windstorm on the plains. His dialogue makes you really see his characters.

I liked the way the young boy Josh, whom we meet in the first selection in this book, becomes the POV character, the thread that ties all the stories together. From the first time we see him, scared and young, being pulled away from the life he knows by is desperate mother, through the entire collection, we seem grow and change, and yet, because this isn’t a novel, it’s possible that he isn’t exactly the same Josh, that rather, he’s reflections of the original, each incarnation slightly different from the previous and the next.

I’ve lived in Texas for nearly fourteen years, the longest I’ve lived anywhere, but I don’t really know Texas. There’s so much of it I haven’t seen, certainly, except for when we drove through to Dallas from California, I’ve never experienced West Texas, and yet, from time spent in Colorado as a child, and South Dakota as a young wife, I feel a kind of kinship with the landscape Archuleta describes.

I went into this book afraid I might be turned off, and was surprised to find that I really connected with the easy storytelling and honest portrayals of real-seeming people.

Archuleta is a modern Hemingway. A Texas treasure. And these stories? They should be shared as far and wide as possible.

Goes well with barbecued brisket and cold beer.
As y’all well know by now, I love me some Texas. And I don’t me just any ole plain love. I mean l-u-r-v-e. I will, in fact, fight anyone who talks against my beloved Lone Star State. I was, after all, born deep in the heart of East Texas and raised in Nacogdoches (the oldest town in Texas) where the piney woods and pecan trees create a sort of magic during the summer. But I’m getting off-topic here…
When the option of reviewing THE EL PASO RED FLAME GAS STATION and other stories by J. Reeder Archuleta popped up in our blogging group, I scrambled like a frog across a hot rock to get chosen to read and review this collection of West Texas short stories.
I was quite intrigued with a few blurbs I’d read on the book … blurbs that mentioned Archuleta’s book was a collection of short stories set out in West Texas. But I’m here to tell you it’s much more than that.
But before I get any further, there’s something else I want … no … need to mention. As a student of Literature, my professors taught me to analyze everything about a book and the story it holds. It’s become a sort of habit that sometimes bumfuzzles and flat-out bores some folks. But not those who truly love books. I trust you’ll understand what I’m about to share. Here goes…
THE EL PASO RED FLAME GAS STATION and other stories by J. Reeder Archuleta arrived at my mailbox neatly sealed in a cardboard envelope. It took a bit of coaxing with a serrated knife, but I was finally able to release the book from captivity. Much to my delight, the cover is even more colorful that it had appeared online. Y’all know how much I love a delicious cover.
What do I love more than a great cover, you ask?
Yes. I adore an author who cares enough to send a reviewer a signed and personalized copy. As an author myself, it speaks volumes to me. It says, “I value the time and effort you are putting into reading and reviewing my work.”
And now we come to the part I mentioned above … the part where my nerdy obsession with book analyzing comes into play. When I carefully (‘cause y’all know I like my books to remain pristine) turned back the gorgeous cover of Archuleta’s book, the first thing I saw was how he’d written my last name underneath my first name. In fact, I puzzled over it for quite some time … it was as if the author was hinting at something to me. Yet, I couldn’t figure it out. So I plowed into the book, thinking I would eventually realize why he’d written my name like that.
And then it hit me. Right smack dab in the middle of the first short story titled JOLIE BLON.
“Cecil put his plate down and began to roll a cigarette. ‘What have I done now, Belle?’”
Yep, you read that right! There’s a character in this book that shares the same name as yours truly. Unfortunately, she turns out to be a heifer and a hussy, which I’m glad to say I’m neither.
Was Archuleta’s personalization of his book subliminal or was it merely unintentional? I have my suspicions. Anyway, back to the review …
As I also mentioned above, this book is much more than just a collection of short stories set out in West Texas. The short stories between the covers of this book share one important thread – a boy named Josh who’s the son of Belle. Now, I’m not going to give away any spoilers. But I will tell y’all this – you will feel as though you’ve actually spent a lifetime in West Texas once you finish reading the stories Archuleta has recorded in these pages.
To me, these stories feel authentic … as if they’ve actually been lived, not told. As if the “J” in the author’s name – “J. Reeder Archuleta” stands for Josh. I’d wager a pretty penny that it does.
Archuleta’s voice is that of a bard. His writing style drew me away to a campfire in some far-off desert in West Texas. As I read each line, I could almost hear the cadence in his voice as he told each short story over the crackling of burning mesquite and cedar logs, the glow of firelight dancing in his eyes. This is the stuff of a real teller of stories. This is the type of book a lover of well-told tales lives to read.
I could not put this book down. And even now, as I write this, the story lingers in the back of my mind. For this book is more than just a collection of short stories stitched together and bound into a book for sale. ‘Tis the pieces of a boy’s life and the story of those who’d made an impact on his heart and soul.
Read it, I implore you. This style of storytelling is the magic!
And that is why I grant THE EL PASO RED FLAME GAS STATION and other stores by J. Reeder Archuleta
5 GLOWING BROOMS!
I was provided a copy of this book by the author in return for an honest review.
Mr. Archuleta stories are interesting pieces of life. that could happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere .These are stories of youth written clearly with language bright, colorful, and concrete. I smiled from one tale to the next. Excellent
Archuleta sets the tone with the description of the harsh winds and conditions that had me sipping water in the first story. The author must have lived some of this life to have captured the grit, pain and with several of the characters a wonderful value system honed by the challenges of the locale and time.
Sandwiched between the roughness were characters that reminded me of the best of humanity. Extending one self for others, generosity with little to share and my favorite-the local boy tames the town thugs.
I thoroughly enjoyed Rio Sonora and the El Paso Red Flame Gas Station was another great read.