Texas Books

Mr. Fath's collection shows impeccable taste on his part, and his knowledge of his subject and personal reminiscences of Benton make this book a must-have for Benton fans. I see copies on occasion is Austin, but they're hard to find. Highly recommended.

This book, although currently out of print, is a must have for anyone interested in the lithographs of Thomas Hart Benton. It catalogues the works and has additional comments by the artist himself on each work. Good luck finding a copy.

For those who don't need the ponderous descriptions of the countryside of Louis L'Amour but do enjoy a well written western. This is Kelton at his best.

Elmer Kelton is one of the great storytellers in the western genre. If you like Louis Lamour or Giles Tippette, you will find Elmer Kelton's books just as enjoyable. His characters are complete, complex, likeable people who are dealing with what life throws at them. Llano River is not the typical story of a gunfighter. It is instead, the story of a man with "no backup in him", who takes a difficult job, and then finds himself faced with reconciling his job with his feelings. Kelton is just a good storyteller, and his characters and the Texas landscape come to life for us. I would recommend any Kelton book to lovers of western fiction.

As a former Scoutmaster, My scouts and I have cooked many a meal in Dutch oven and cast iron cookware. After browsing through this cookbook, I plan to dig out my dutch oven and try some of the recipes I had never thought of.

Great cook book like the way it tells you how much charcoal to use easy to follow .

Lone Star State Of Death by Bobbi Ann Chukran is the intriguing tale of journalist Samantha Slater in her new move to a small town in Texas and immediate assignment to cover a local murder mystery. When Samantha's boss, George Stanley, is suspiciously killed by a runaway horse, Lone Star State Of Death takes swift turns through an increasingly thickening plot as the mystery surrounding recent happenings, envelope Sam's life in the intricacies of finding the truth. Lone Star State Of Death is very highly recommended reading for mystery buffs with a preference to murder mysteries featuring an inventive tale of deceit, thrills, and colorful characters.

I have been reading a lot of mysteries that take place in Texas since moving here a year ago. This one intrigued me further by sharing my surname - Slater. Samantha Slater is a young woman who does not wait for her life to come to her - she goes out to make her own. The mystery begins on Samantha's arrival in a small town to begin her new job as assistant editor to the local newspaper. But before she is able to meet her new boss, he is brought in to the newspaper office fatally injured by his favorite horse. Abruptly realizing that she is now the editor in chief, she decides that the editor's death is the news to report. However, when she begins questioning the locals, all she ends up with are more questions. I really enjoyed this story of Texas in the 1800's. Chukran's character development is wonderful - you really begin to see the people as the story unfolds. The final question is this: Will Samantha survive to write her next story?

I especially enjoyed it because a friend of mine was brought up in Texas and he was delighted to read information of which he was unaware concerning both sides of his family. He also found that there were chapters about people that he had known in his youth. I had purchased the book for him to pass on to his son and grandchildren.

This book is packed full of very interesting information. I saw it at a friends house and just had to have it. It is worth the purchase for this bit of history.

I cannot believe someone hasn't reviewed this book yet. It is wonderfully charming with beautiful, large color pictures of 63 quilts made in Texas between the years of 1836 and 1936. Accompanying each quilt is also a picture of the quiltmaker and a page about her life and quilt.

The stories of the women are as interesting as their quilts. One story tells of a woman alone with her baby, hearing the Indians circling her log cabin. She spins all night to listen to the whistle of her spinning wheel so as not to be afraid. What wonderful foremothers we had, who left us a legacy of their courage and industry as well as their beautiful handiwork.

What fun the authors must have had in writing this book! As they did in Volume I (1836-1936) Ms Bresenhan and Ms. Puentes give us quality color pictures of Texas quilts, pictures of the quilters and stories about the quilts and the makers. After seeing the quilts and reading the stories you feel as if you know these Texas women who expressed their artistic creativity through the medium of quilt-making.

Included in volume II (1936-1986) are quilts by Pamela Studsill, a two time recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Visual Arts Fellowship. Also featured is the "Pele" quilt by fiber artist Beth Kennedy. And of course there are also some very traditional quilts from the 30's and 40's and delightful innovative work from the 70's and 80's.

Brown knows the west and fits great detail of cowboying into a surprisingly deep story. The characters are rich and the narative clear and well done.

Brown knows cowboys, its obvious. This is a good quick reading, surprisingly deep and thoughtful western with plenty of action.

The Long Surprise is filled cover to cover with Barbara Lau's deftly written poetry about human emotion, and the sometimes brutal world that surrounds people. Evoking fear, pity, grief, love, and resolution in the face of hardship, the free verse captures the conceptualization of the soul and what it means to be alive, even in a harsh natural universe. Walking Home From The Writing Center: Like the small, kind deceptions/we play on our children each day.//I'm supposed to make you care about/a slim nothing of a comma.//You don't even feel the sinews/of the verbs, the singing of the vowels.//Better to sit with you atop a red silo/mis-naming grasses framing the fields://moon-raked wheat, copper-lion pelt,/plumes-of-peach-on-charred-tubers://still finding there are a dozen too few words/to describe October. And of all times to be//struck dumb. I say, trees of sun-dried plum:/you say, pink and gold coupling under gauze.

Reading Barbara Lau's poems in THE LONG SURPRISE is like opening a window on a hot, breathless afternoon; the breeze of her language lifts a lace curtain into charmed rooms of your own home, rooms you'd forgotten were there. The effect is deja vu with a difference: open to any poem~yes you've been there before. But the recognition is more than surprising. It's like finding a stranger's quilt on your bed, whose every scrap has been cut from the fabric of your own clothes, or finding a a cobweb in the attic strung with your own jewelry. The ordinary becomes so extraordinary in her writing: "...my words coalesce/like cobalt blue spindles/of blown glass. Is chaos/counterpoint to art, or instead/its tuning fork?" ***
"...I might flip-flop down a beach, spot an opal stone with my name/etched underneath, and still not think/'miracle'... ***
"...Did it happen all at once,/the way corn fields overnight turn/from green to whittled bone..." ***
"...Too cold to be standing here (the bath towel ten steps away) but his eyes at the window hold me (stark still)drape me in ways (places)more familiar touches could never reach..." ***
A better way to read Barbara Lau's book is straight through. Once you begin, chances are you won't put it down...ever. Free verse? Yes, in the best sense of contemporary American English that refuses to conform to foreign forms. Each poem is tied together and threaded to the next and to the others in an elaborately subtle embroidery of symbol, metaphor, imagery. All the poems echo with lyrical allusion, alliteration, internal rhyme. The best reason to read these poems is to find your missing self there. You're in for a big surprise.

I own a dozen or so books about Longhorn football, but this one's my favorite. From the gorgeous photos to the insightful text, this book covers UT football history better than the others. One difference is in the large, coffee-table-sized format. Another is the unmistakable feeling that Hawthorne's "one of us." He's not afraid to use first person pronouns when talking about the Horns, and his commentary nicely captures the feelings of us orange-blooded fans (e.g., the teams we consider rivals). Thanks, Bobby, for this excellent addition to my Longhorn library!

If you LOVE football as much as I LOVE football, you absolutely must purchase LONGHORN FOOTBALL by up and coming author, Bobby Hawthorne. Hawthorne has gleaned the very best from over 113 years of outstanding Longhorn photography to create a dynamic picture that seems to come to life in your very hands. His insightful commentary only adds to the overall enjoyment of the book. I just couldn't put it down once I opened the book. I could almost hear the crackle of helmets on crisp fall afternoons as I reminisced over many of the best loved players, coaches and fans of the last 100 plus years. In short, this is the book that Darrell Royal would have wanted to be written about the greatest game in the greatest state in the union. Rick Hill

This is the fourth of in the series about Matthew Mckendrick. It is a wonderful story that is very well written. I have read it several times and never get tired of reading it. It is a nice ending for this series to see the changes in the main character and some resolution to the cries in his life.

Anyone who's ever suffered at the hands of their classmates in high school can relate to the story of Matt McKendrick, whose experience is ten times worse. Forced to brave people who believe that he murdered his little sister Katie, Matt struggles to regain some kind of life, and to regain his position as a winning runner. His friends, Meg and Will Schuyler, and their younger siblings Lew and Carey, provide a wonderfully comedic and supportive outlet to Matt's insecurities and pain. Matt's foster family is also very realistic, providing more humor and dimension to Matt's life. You'll definitely want to read the other three books in this series!