Texas Books

This - third in the Dan Reles detective series - is every bit as gripping and entertaining as its predecessors. If anything, Reles's ever-more-cynical views on life and crime-fighting give this book even more of a sadly and wistfully satisfying perspective. The story, again, involves government and Big Business corruption at its most hideous, but the most compelling aspects of the book are the searing human tragedies - the individual characters whose hopeless and wretched lives are touchingly and believably depicted by Simon. A gem of a book.

I was born and raised in Austin. How cool is it to have a fictional account my hometown,(home neighborhood for that matter) from my teens and up. WOW. Thanks. Well written, smart, exciting thriller. I'm telling my friends about it...and can't wait for book four!

Michael Simon has done it again.With Dirty Sally i thought he was the new James Ellroy,with Body Scissors he confirmed it and now with Little Faith he's surpassed him.

Dan Reles,his been through the ringer anti-hero,is up to his neck again in murder and corruption and more murder.After reading this in 3 nights flat i felt i needed a steam clean its so gritty.

If you like Ellroy read Simon,if you like Don Winslow read Simon,in fact READ SIMON NOW!

"Little Faith" is set in 1995 Austin, Texas, seven years after the 1988 time period of Michael Simon's first hard-boiled crime novel "Dirty Sally" and four years after the 1991 setting of his second novel "Body Scissors." "Little Faith" contains new characters as well as the continuing central character and others who survived the first two books. It's a great read on its own, although for maximum enjoyment I would recommend reading the three books in time sequence beginning with Dirty Sally.

The protagonist of Little Faith is again Dan Reles, the Austin police detective and transplanted New Yorker who battles his own corrosive cynicism and damaged psyche along with the criminals he pursues. Murderers, incestuous relatives, pornographers, loan sharks, and faux-religious power mongers are all in a day's work for detective Reles.

One reservation: I felt uncomfortable with the author's heavy-handed treatment of the fictional (and un-named) state governor, whose characterization struck me as a transparently disdainful portrait of the real-life Texas governor of that period. No doubt some readers' reactions will be more akin to glee; nonetheless, I think it is distracting and doesn't serve the story well.

Austinites will feel very much at home as they visualize Reles' travels around town. Those not familiar with Austin likey will pass over most of the geographics, with no loss of essential detail. Everyone will appreciate Simon's storytelling prowess, his gritty and epigrammatic narrative style, believable and well-constructed dialogue, and his spot-on depiction of the more reprehensible aspects of human nature. I certainly did.

The theme of "little faith' in TX and national poltiics is fun, disturbing and timely.
I enjoy getting to know Simon's Austin Police Department and his other recurring characters.

Simon's mysteries improves with each new novel.
The plots get tighter and faster and there are always surprises as the pages turn.

I like Reles -- he's a good person but he's not the very nicest guy -- kinda like real life.

I can't wait for the next one!

Eros on the Nile
I have just ordered Love Songs of the New Kingdom and have three comments. One of the poems quoted in Eros on the Nile,(which I have and recommend) is from Love Songs of the New Kingdom. It is a beautiful and charming translation of this poem. Second, I have clicked above to read an exerpt from the book and notice that the hieroglyphs are well and economically drawn. I have been studing Middle Egyptian for about two years, and have been struggling with the problem of writing some of the glyphs quickly and yet with a bit of style. So I look forward to adopting Foster's renditions of them. Third, for those bothered by the comment of another reviewer that the hieratic has been transcribed by Foster into hieroglyphs, I have read that this is a near universal practice of Egyptologists in rendering hieratic text for publication.

Let's go way back to the New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt, specifically the reign of the Ramesside pharaohs (roughly 1305-1080 BC). To put the era in its proper historical perspective, this was half a millennium before the blind Greek poet Homer composed The Iliad and The Odyssey.

Literature, mainly for moral instruction or in praise of deities, already thrived in the days of the pharaohs. We have some poems and stories inscribed on papyri and ostraca (bits of pottery or limestone). There are temple inscriptions. In terms of size, the most impressive achievement is The Book of the Dead, a bewildering mish-mash of myth and ritual incantation which remains essential reading for morbid-minded folks till today.

Ancient writing can seem intimidating and arcane to our impatient modern sensibilities. There are all these references to gods and demi-gods, whose hierarchic structure and tangled web of familial relations would put any soap opera to shame. You feel that you should just chuck it all aside and down a few cappuccinos instead.

But wait! We have with us today about 60 secular love poems,translated from Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics by the American John L. Foster. They are delightfully accessible, and more entertaining than a month of TV dramas. Some of these poems were discovered in archeological digs conducted just a few decades ago. What's even more amazing is that they read as if they were written not in the 12th century BC but yesterday.

Yes, the poems are all about love. But this isn't the hackneyed,soppy mush that you can get today. This is love not just as sweetness 'n' light but as game-playing and subterfuge, as sexual warfare, as delicious torment. In terms of psychological complexity, they match the blues and torch songs recorded early in our own ravaged century. There's no moralising here. Foster's book is called Love Songs of the New Kingdom (1974) but it could have been tagged "Papyri Don't Preach".

Instead of being goody-goody, love poetry should acknowledge the violence, kinkiness and deception which exist in any reasonably interesting relationship. The Ancient Egyptians knew this, for they were wise.

An example? Listen to this young man's melancholic cry:

"I think I'll go home and lie very still / Feigning terminal illness / Then the neighbours will all troop to stare / My love, perhaps among them / How she'll smile when the specialists / Snarl in their teeth! - / She perfectly well knows what ails me."

Appreciate the startling, passive-aggressive psychodrama being played out here. Although the authors in all cases are unknown, their works range freely through the human sensorium. The agony and the ecstasy brought about by lust, affection, jealousy and longing get full play.

The poetic personae are men and women but, unlike in some ancient Greek and Persian poetry, entirely heterosexual. Despite this handicap, there's a whole lot of kinkiness going on. Check out this guy's sado-masochistic relationship with his dominatrix girlfriend:

"How clever my love with a lasso / She'll never need a kept bull! / She lets fly the rope at me / (from her dark hair) / Draws me in with her come-hither eyes / wrestles me down between her bent thighs / Branding me hers with her burning seal / (cowgirl, the fire from those thighs!)"

Something even more delightfully perverse can be found in this straight man's transvestite fantasy, which reminds me of the great Prince song If I Was Your Girlfriend:

"I wish I were her Nubian girl, / one to attend her (bosom companion), / Confidante, and a child of discretion: / Close hidden at nightfall we whisper / As (modest by day) she offers / breasts like ripe berries to evening - / Her long gown settles, then, bodiless, / hangs from my helping hand."

This touching fantasy reminds me of the way I spent Valentine's Day ... but I digress.

Poetry from the Ramesside period is significant as the oldest extant literature spoken by non-deitic females. Some of the personae are worldly and sexually explicit ("Would your fingers follow the line of my thighs/ Learn the curves of my breast, and the rest?") but others are artfully naive and ingenuous, like this voyeuristic girl who is "accidentally" at the right place:

"I just chanced to be happening by / in the neighbourhood where he lives / His door, as I hoped, was open - / and I spied on my secret love."

Some of the poems may seem sweet and simple, but they already use striking similes ("Love of you is mixed deep in my vitals/ Like water stirred into flour for bread"). Nature, represented by flowers,gardens, orchards and, of course, the Nile, also provides poetic settings and metaphors in a way which anticipates the Western pastoral literature that emerged centuries later.

The fact that the poets are so good is surprising without being surprising, if you catch my drift. I mean, their ancestors built the Pyramids (in the era known as, ahem, The Old Kingdom), which are structures of such weirdness, ingenuity and complexity that we still haven't found out everything about them.

The poems, too, are creatures of remarkable engineering. They teach us about the twisty, turbulent, uncanny mysteries of love and lust, which still survive in today's blessedly pagan pop culture. Read them instead of writing to newspaper agony-aunts about your tacky little problems. The poets show us that love is a battlefield, sex is a weapon, and we all sleep alone. Confused? But that's the story of, that's the glory of, love.

If you want to warm your lady's heart through her mind, the potency of this book has no equal. I bought this for my girlfriend two years ago and she still reads it over regularly. You know guys, the gift you are looking for to prove that your mind functions outside of the physical? If she is even remotely open to ancient civilization this is the ticket, this is "The Gift." I am not usually into poetry but I like this a lot. This is the Total Recall of poetry: just enough plot, just enough action. Seriously, she will love this and you will not mind it yourself ;).

Finally a book of Egyptian love poetry for people with enough of Budge to recognize a hieroglyph or two :-) More seriously the hieroglyphs are primarily "atmosphere" in this text. Curiously, the hieroglyphs are not the original but rather transcriptions of the original cursive hieratic ... a bit of posturing that mildly concerned me when I first saw the book. Fortunately, the quality of the translated poetry more than compensated for my qualms.

Having been introduced to Egyptian love poetry by the use of Michael Fox's work in a class on the Song of Songs (aka Song of Solomon), I was delighted to find this gem. The poetry is translated without footnotes - a feature I appreciate.

An example of the joys of the poems: "He had made a hushed sell in the thicket, for worship / to dedicate this day / To holy elevation of flesh"

Because of the relationship of Egyptian love poetry to the Song of Songs, this scarely known poetry has had an effect on our culture - one as worth exploring as the Greek or Latin.

I LOVED it! I bought it on an impulse, having found it on the backshelf at a bargain store. I wasn't sure if I would like it, but, like I said, I loved it! It is SO romantic! "when I hold you close, and your arms steal around me, I am like a man transplanted to Punt, or like someone out in the reedflats, when the whole world bursts into flower. In this land of south-sea fragrances, my love, you are the essence of roses!" HOW ROMANTIC! I would love to have been that woman to whom the poet was saying such things! I highly reccomend this book to anybody, especially those wo are just getting into poetry, like me. It is truly a beautiful book.

This is such a great song to sing and the book is a fun accompaniment, as well as the CD.
These types of books are great to bring in the car for some family fun time!

This is such a great book. I've used it with many many preschoolers and children, and the remark I always get is "again, again"...

I bought this book for my nephew and the entire family has enjoyed his singing the pages, he had it memorized in no time and he is only 2 years old!!! I would recommend this book to anyone with young children, not just for their enjoyment but for the entire family.

The younger loves the beautiful pictures and singing along. The older loves looking for all the little details in the pictures. They both love substituting the names of the characters for their own friends' names! Both learned their colors through this book without realizing what they were actually doing. This is one book I don't mind reading over and over.

I remember reading this book back in kindergarten and the first grade. It was the first book I ever learned to read. I loved this book so much that I read it until I had it memorized. It's too bad the original cover is not printed in this edition. I'm going to pass this one down to my cousin, Adam, whose only 4. Hopefully, we can continue the tradition so this will be his first book he ever learns to read.

"Monday's Meal" is aptly named . These stories are salty and pungent with a hint of bitter chicory. No one serves these morsels, the reader has to dip his fingers into the pot. They might come out burned, or dripping grease, but the tidbit they clutch is never bland. The characters are alive. We know them well, or we know someone who knew them and told us their stories. No one tells them as well as Les Edgerton. Some stories can be gulped down and digested later. Some like "Hard Times" cannot be gulped. It must be taken in small sips, sometimes days apart. It will take you that long to identify the taste.

When I finished the last story in Monday's Meal I paused, reflected, and then read it right through again from the beginning. Part of the reason for my re-reading was a simple desire to repeat the pleasure; part of it was a desire to understand what made these elegantly constructed stories tick. Just where was I drawn from a realistic beginning into the banishment of the ordinary - the strange, ordinary world that some of these stories inhabit? Just where is the edge in these finely drawn personalities, the edge that leads to the end? One can also learn from these stories. The craft, the amazing economy deserve study, but one can just go along for the ride and enjoy. I would compare some of the plots to Ray Carver's in their structure, but Edgerton has it all over Carver in his depiction of personality. Edgerton's people have depth, they are all different, and the actions flow entirely from their natures. This is a collection not to be missed.

'Monday's Meal' is aptly named . These stories are salty and pungent with a hint of bitter chicory. No one serves these morsels, the reader has to dip his fingers into the pot. They might come out burned, or dripping grease, but the tidbit they clutch is never bland. The characters are alive. We know them well, or we know someone who knew them and told us their stories. No one tells them as well as Les Edgerton. Some stories can be gulped down and digested later. Some like 'Hard Times' cannot be gulped. It must be taken in small sips, sometimes days apart. It will take you that long to identify the taste.

This collection will grab you by the heart and wrench it right out of your chest. The characters are hauntingly authentic as are the New Orleans and South Texas settings they inhabit. These are deeply troubled individuals coping with other troubled individuals who find solace only in the bottle and the arid soil underneath the soles of their battered Tony Lamas. Edgerton reigns as a supreme American author. A sort of Ray Carver meets Denis Johnson. A literary man who succeeds where the academics fail--he knows plot, he knows story, he knows action! The last of a great breed that includes Hemingway, Mailer and Jim Harrison. It's simple. If you don't read Les Edgerton, you lose.

Edgerton's stories takes us down those side streets or out into the backwoods most of us have passed by. What we meet there are the people we have avoided all our lives. What we find is the human heart, its brightness and dark corners. And we leave and return to the same world we have always known, but it doesn't look the same. Joyously disturbing work, hard to ignore.

I give this book five gold stars--five thumbs up--five pats on the back--five nods of joy. (See more about my work www.WordsBySusie.com) Lloyd Mardis takes his readers along with him on his cycling quest into the human spirit. You cannot read his new book, Mother Nature Ain't Nobody's Mom, without coming away feeling as if you have known this gentle and insightful guy forever. Mardis captures the landscape--both interior and exterior--of life. With each turn of the page, I found myself riding alongside Mardis, seeing the world and the people he met through his eyes and heart. This is a gem of a journey book. A must have for every bookcase. Check it out today--enjoy the cycling--enjoy the humor--enjoy the poignancy. Who knows? One day when you're out on the road cycling across the countryside, maybe you'll run into author Mardis--if so, I'd bet you'd be in for the adventure of a lifetime.

My book club thoroughly enjoyed this book. Mr. Mardis' prose enabled us to settle into the rhythm of the road along with him, and we found much to savor in his humorous telling of his many adventures. We enjoyed his descriptions of small Texas towns, his retelling of local legends, and his stories of the interesting people he met along the way. His poetry reveals the sensory impact of months alone living outside and traveling through open country and the resulting self-knowledge. There are so many things to enjoy about this book that I found myself turning page after page, long into the night. I couldn't put it down.

Mr. Mardis's book is wonderful. It can be read from front to back, or as I have discovered by reading sections in no particular order. I find this a relaxing and enjoyable way to read his book! However, my favorite section, where I am able to get the feel of the trip, is his poetry. Here the nitty-gritty, the tedium, the every-inch of the trip is (gratefully) accepted and absorbed, and his experiences come alive for me - the very tedium of cycling mile after mile is the very stuff of exhilaration. Mother nature is present to enjoy, to battle, to accept, to be amazed at, to be part of, but never, ever taken for granted or ignored!!! Thanks for the ride.

Being a class mate of Lloyd's back in Indiana. and hearing about his bike rides, I was a little sceptible of how interesting a book on riding a bicycle and camping could be.
Well I was quite surprised at how interesting traveling through the country on a bicycle could be along with the humor, discriptions of his surroundings and historic facts presented
in a form that kept my attention.
I live in Florida now and will recommend it to my friends.

Good luck on this and future books.

Very good. Makes you want to travel. Only give few books 5 stars, and this is one of them. Worth the time, give it a try.

As a poker player and a businessman I have for years realized the close correlation between the skills needed to succeed in both arenas. Krause and Carter do an outstanding and insightful job of making these correlations quite clear for the reader and their use of keywords to assist the reader in digesting and recalling these skills is very useful.

This book touches on a number of topics that are considered by some to be taboo in business today. I would like to thank them for being so open and blunt about these topics. Even if one's character does not allow them to use all of these tactics in pursuing their successes at least they should be informed enough to recognize when some of the more questionable tactics are being employed against them.

Success in business and poker require an understanding of the game, an ability to react quickly to uncertain situations, and be prepared to take calculated risks knowing when the reward justifies such risk taking. The authors do an outstanding job at pointing out to the reader how to recognize these opportunities, determine the risk/reward payoff, and identify which tactics and strategies can be employed to achieve optimum results.

Krause and Carter have successfully defined the game in business today and given readers the foundation for success. All that is needed is the strength of heart to understand yourself, your opponents, and which tactic suits you for the attainment of your goals. This book is not about a quick fix or even a big one time score it is about making the changes that can positively impact you over the long haul. Just like poker, success is not measured by your performance on a particular night or during a specific tournament, it is measured by your long running results from the time you began playing the game until you ultimately stop.

Read this book, apply what suits your own character and player type, then go out there and get in the game with confidence in knowing that you are equipped with the tools of success!!

It was a good read. Very clever of you guys to center it around the national phenomenon of poker playing. I happen to be the worst poker player ever to attempt the game - I used to be pretty good at bridge tho' - but my son plays, my nephews play, my brother-in-law plays, etc. Even in JAX there are several thriving poker rooms with more opening all the time. I can see why college professors would refer to and use the book since a large portion of their audience probably plays poker.

The book was easy to read and kept my attention. I like the use of acronyms to help with retention. I guess that's why we use them so much in our field. I also enjoyed the off-hand buried references from the OZ books. I guess the chapters on The Land of Oz and Getting to Know You were two of my favorites - probably because I do a lot of that intuitively. I think I am a mutated Wizard. I truly lack the "keen desire to dominate and wield power" (more about that later), but a lot of the rest of it sounds like me.

I am not sure if these next paragraphs have more to do with my X chromosome, my ENFP Myers-Briggs, or my somewhat limited spiritual gifts of mercy, service and encouragement; but this wouldn't be an honest and complete review without this part.

I am not personally motivated by winning. I think this is probably an X chromosome thing, but please never quote me by name on that - I'll get drummed out of my gender. What motivates me is service and gratitude. What keeps me going is believing that I have made a difference. If someone actually thanks me - that's the gravy. That's one reason why I loved working for you so much - you were always so good about thanking. The reason I blame it on the X is that my son, who is also ENFP, cares deeply about winning. He is in law school now, and even though he has a highly defined sense of justice, etc., at the core of it he just wants to WIN. He loves to compete in his areas of highest confidence, like moot court and trial team competitions. I really believe that a high percentage of women in the work force are motivated more like me than they are by WINNING. They probably would never admit it though. The ones who try hard to compete and make winning central tend to be the least happy and the most bitter. I think we take losing more personally than the Y crowd. We internalize it (I'm a bad person) and it makes us miserable. I think the book was important for me to read because, even though I'm not energized by the winning thing, I need to understand the people around me. I have always worked and I will be working for some time still. I need to understand other people's motivation and behavior in order to survive.

On the ENFP front, I am not big on planning and life-time commitments (the P) and I lead with my gut A LOT (the F). Parts of the book made me tired and a little depressed because they depend on characteristics I don't possess. I guess I could do it (like anything else) if I were willing to pay the price, but I'm not. The good news is that the book affirms that my highly developed intuition (the N) will probably keep me in the game even if I don't win much which I don't really care about anyway. I learned some things I can keep though - things where the value of the hand comes up positive for me - and I'm going to work on those.

On the "mercy and encouragement" side, the parts about manipulation, subterfuge, intentional disruption - that all creeps me out. Setting somebody up to fail is not something I would consciously do, even though I probably have done subconsciously. My least favorite parts were the ones about exploiting character flaws and the D-I-S-C-A-R-D. That said, I am a realist and I do believe in the doctrine of Total Depravity, so I have rather low expectations of the human race (including me). It is important for me to be reminded that there are people out there who would do me harm in order to advance and it's good to study exactly how they might do it. I do like to be safe and understanding where the threats are and what I need to do to parry the blows is great information.

Summary: Good read - clever, smart, entertaining, thorough. Imparts a lot of information in relatively few pages. Is designed for take-away action. I recommend it for everyone who has to interact with other humans (grin). Even if you wouldn't plan to use the offensive strategies and tactics, the defensive possibilities are invaluable. I plan to order it for my son. He grew up in an X household and I think it will feed his Y soul.

Once you pick up No Limit and start turning the pages, it will not be easy to put down. This book is extremely easy to read and more importantly, apply. Krause and Carter's clever use of acronyms and overall structure make the content very easy to pick up and maintain. After reading this book, I've been able to increase my level of performance at work through applying the No Limit strategies.

Poker, business, and life require a strategic decision making approach that positions you for the best possible chance for success. This book will help you enhance, transport and modify your Friday night poker methodology into your professional & personal relationships creating a competitive advantage over your competitors.

Everyone wants to be a winner but not all possess and nurture the skills necessary to win. This book is not about a one time, quick fix for success or the bluff that gets you the promotion or project you've had your eye on. It is about applying the skills addressed by Donald Krause and Jeff Carter to your everyday life in order to know yourself, know and understand the players in the game you play and increase your odds. It is about striving to be the winner, cultivating the attributes of greatness from within, and learning from failure-yours and those of others- to not just win the big pot but all those little ones that make us get up everyday and pursue our aspirations.

This book is not for the faint of heart. No Limit puts it out there for the reader. Millions will read this but few will have the will to act and make an impact on their lives.

The concepts described in No Limit are critical to success when the stakes are high. This is about the realities of business in today's hypercompetitive environment. .

Donald Krause and Jeff Carter combine to provide a unique and powerful set of tools that can dramatically increase one's ability to influence and lead. They seem to combine game theory, psychoanalysis and various negotiation models into an innovative analogous format that has yet to be documented.

Great book whether you are from Texas or not. The author's artwork is superb and gives you the real feelings of these "old Texas friends". The stories are right out of history and very entertaining. Whether you are young or old, the past is always a great place to visit and Mr. Morgan's book is a wonderful time machine with which to travel there. Highly recommended.

The prose is remarkably uplifting and allows one to look at history in a unique fashion. The stories are interesting and some local people with firsthand knowledge about one particular story told me the article was correct to the letter. The drawings are amazingly accurate to the finest detail. An excellent gift for the upcoming holidays. Your friends or relatives would greatly appreciate this book.

This book provides an entertaining historical account of the grand old courthouses of Texas. The author takes you back to days when the county seat was the center of activity and the letter of the law was a bit dusty. The drawings are spectacular in detail as are the tall tales of Texas lore. It is an excellent gift book and very reasonably priced.

Very good book.Lots of Texas history. Well written. I enjoyed the tales of Texas lore.Superb art work with excellent details.A great book to have in your library. B.

This is a fascinating work on a fairly esoteric topic. Although I usually don't usually encounter such works unless I am looking up specific information, I came across this book and had a difficult time putting it down. The illustrations are a magical blend of art and fact. When I have visited the courthouses, I felt as if I had been there - from both the prose and the drawings. If this topic (Texas history and culture) sounds interesting, get the book - you'll love it. If you are not sure, get the book - you'll love it. This will make a wonderful gift.

This intriguing and fast paced book held my attention until the end. I immediately sought more of her books but the local bookstore had none of them. I particularly like the main characters as they seem to come from my immediate surroundings, which prompted me to keep doors and windows locked while reading. Refreshing and very real.

This intriguing and fast paced book held my attention until the end. I immediately sought more of her books but the local bookstore had none of them. I particularly like the main characters as they seem to come from my immediate surroundings, which prompted me to keep doors and windows locked while reading. Refreshing and very real.

When E.J. Pugh discovers the bodies of her next door neighbors and the four-year-old who witnessed it she is horrified. After she finds out that she has been named Bessie's guardian, she worries that the child could be the next target of the killer. When she also finds out that the police think that Mr. Lester killed his wife, child and himself she becomes determined to clear his name and protect Bessie. I couldn't put down this fast paced and high intensity start to the E. J. Pugh series.

I am glad I am not her neighbor!! This was the first book I read from Cooper, and the friends/neighbors deaths were shocking to me. Cooper managed to pull it out and the book was a good read. Can't wait to read more to see how the family is coping and what danger is lurking around the corner for the Pugh's.

I started this book and was hooked from the very beginning. I cried with E.J. Pugh, the protagonist, at the death of her friends and neighbors--the whole family except for one little girl. I could feel for E.J. and her family dealing with: inability to believe and cope with the idea that a beloved friend could committ a brutal murder like this, the difficulty in taking a child so emotionally injured by this incident and trying to adapt her into a new family, with E.J. trying to solve this murder. One of the very best mysteries I have read. I already love and reccommend Susan Rogers Coopers series about Sheriff Milt Kovack, an Oklahoma lawman, as a superior series. But I wonder, after this book, how will she ever be able to keep the suspense this high again. I hope E.J. Pugh and her family are around for a long time.

Hey, this is one great story! Rule Cordell is a fascinating character, one I hope we get to read more about in future books by Cotton Smith. It captures the agony of the end of the Civil War in a way that is as moving as Cold Mountain. No lie! Powerful stuff. I wanted it to go on and on.

This was a very moving book! There is so much change on many levels. I didn't want to put it down! If you need a good Christmas or birthday gift idea - here it is!

This book hit me hard. I'n not a "western" fan as such, but this was recommended to me by a friend, who had read it three times already. You shouldn't miss it! I hope there's another Rule Cordell book in Cooton Smith -- or two!

Pray for Texas was excellent...from the colorful characters to the fast-paced storyline. I was riveted! I would recommend this book to anyone --western buffs or not!

I really enjoyed Pray For Texas adn thought the writing was as good as, if not better than "Cold Mountain" and "War to Live on." The characters in this book will stay with you and you may not feel the same way about the Civil War again. Quite a feat of writing. Looking forward to the next book from Mr. Smith

Someone gave me this book back in the early 90's I read most of it before my sister STOLE it! Once I got it back I finished it and then one day while on the bus a lady asked to see it, we got to talking about the book and she got off the bus with the book in her hands..... yes, it was stolen AGAIN! I had no clue who the lady was, I only hope that she read it. Over the years while visiting book stores I have always inquired about it but I wasn't sure of the name or author. Well low and behold one day my sister and I were talking about books (we always share the good ones)and she told me that the BEST book she had ever read was Racehoss: Big Emma's Boy. Yes, the one she stole, since then I have been on a quest to replace it. I just bought it on Amazon.com! I can't wait to read it again. It was EXECELLENT! and as I remember, definitely worth reading twice! I am so sorry that I missed the interview with the author that other reviewers have mentioned, I would love to have been able to see the REAL Racehoss!

I read this book for the first time back in 1997 and continue to find this book to be among the very best that I have ever read. Mr. Sample delivers his story in a hilarious yet touching manner. I recommend this as a must read for pretty much everyone.

In the mid 1980's I tuned into a repeat program on the local NPR affiliate in Washington D.C. Diane Rehm was the host of a repeat broadcast of an interview with the author. It was such an absolutely compelling interview with the man, now obviously (at that time) an elderly gentleman--that I had to go out right away and purchase the book. It was and still remains a book that embodies everything "Classic" literature is. King must have read this before writing "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption"--and as good a short story and subsequent movie as it was--Race Hoss:Big Emma's Boy is the ultimate real deal. Having heard the interview with the author, I am at a distinct advantage to analyze both the man and his writing. There are simply no superlatives to describe either. God Bless Albert Race Sample--thank you for a book that hopefully be filmed just as it is written. If approached honestly, it would be the finest portrayal of prison life as well as life as a young black man in the Deep South to date.

I am looking for this book which is now out of print I believe. Ordinarily I might overlook this subject matter... but, I was listening to NPR's Diane Rehm 25th anniversary show, in which she played various excerpts of past programs. Diane prefaced... "and the most moving interview for me was with Albert Race Samples" and then I heard this smallish quivering voice with a light Texas accent talking about his time in "the hole" in prison, about how one day (or night?) in the absolute blackness around him, a loneliness and desperation of the soul came upon him... he called out to God and was answered with a glimmer of light right in front of him... from then, he knew he was not alone. I was moved, as Rehm had been... and determined to try to find his book. I could only wish it would be available on CD and read by Mr. Samples himself.

If anyone had an excuse to go into a life of crime, it was Albert Race Sample, known as Racehoss because he was interracial. The son of a prostitute and grandson of a grandfather who murdered his (Racehoss') grandmother, Albert followed his destiny and ended up in a tough Texas prison, which is darker and starker than anything I've seen in books. In fact, I agree with another reviewer who suspects that Stephen King, and perhaps others, used Sample's book as a model for their prison stories and scenes. Read this book if you're thinking about going to prison--it'll change your mind real quick.