Texas Books

I'll Do My Own Damn Killin'GREAT BOOK! MOST FUN I HAVE EVER HAD READING A BOOK.

THIS STORY IS SO WELL WRITTEN AND SO INTERESTING THAT NICK CASSAVETES, MOVIE PRODUCER AND POKER PLAYER, HAS PURCHASED THE RIGHTS TO MAKE IT INTO A MOVIE. WHILE KICKING THIS AROUND A POKER GAME THE OTHER DAY THE PLAYERS AND I AGREED JOSH BROLIN SHOULD PLAY THE YOUNG BENNY BINION.

I expected to be somewhat entertained and learn a small bit about the history of Dallas gambling. I didn't expect to be so thoroughly consumed with the stories, the history and the characters. Excellent!

This is a great book. I knew Benny Binion. My new novel, Texas Poker Wisdom, has several stories about Benny, including the day I met him in 1960. When Binion moved to Vegas, he took a giant step down being a casino owner considering the many things he controlled in Dallas and Ft. Worth and elsewhere. The gambling wars in Dallas and Ft. Worth are hard to believe. Mr. Sleeper has written a book any Texan, gambler, or curious reader will love. I loved this book.
Johnny HughesTexas Poker Wisdom

If you have found yourself in Soprano-withdrawal, this book is for you. "I'll Do My Own Damn Killin'" is a raucous gangland tale of a long and bitter feud between two former partners for control of the Dallas gambling scene of the 1930s and 40s.

Most people know Lester Ben Binion as the Las Vegas icon who
owned some of the early casinos there, with the downtown Horseshoe Club being the most famous and longest-lived. But before his Las Vegas days he was known as the Dallas "boss gambler." He had most of Dallas law enforcement "fixed" so he could run his numbers, his policy wheels, and his poker games at the Southland Hotel without fear of arrest. He was temperamental, braggadocios, but also jovial in a sinister sort of way. The title of the book comes from a reply he gave when asked if he had ever hired a hit man.

Herbert Noble ran crap games in downtown Dallas and soon came to resent the 25-percent protection money he had to pay to Binion. He had dreams of being the Dallas gambling kingpin himself, and formed a partnership with a like-minded underworld financier. Soon the gambling wars had begun, with one Noble partner after another turning up dead, and back and forth contracts put out on various hardcases from both sides. Noble himself had no less than thirteen assassination attempts made on him. As the author says, "By the early Fall of 1950, planning to kill Herbert Noble had practically become a cottage industry in Dallas and Fort Worth."

Tragedy finally struck when Noble's 36-year-old wife made the fatal mistake of borrowing her husband's booby-trapped car. The explosion was heard eight miles away and the blast shattered windows for blocks. Her mangled body was laid to rest in a solid copper casket said to be the most expensive one ever sold in Dallas.

After this incident, the hatred that consumed Noble escalated the war and led to a hellish confusion of such grisly murders and maiming that it's hard to believe that this actually happened in Texas and not in some 12-hour Francis Ford Coppola trilogy. Notorious people move in and out of the pages, people like Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, Bugsy Siegal, Meyer Lansky, Estes Kefauver, and even one Jacob Rubenstein, aka Jack Ruby.

Finally by the end of the book, the good guys have arrived on the scene, the Texas Rangers, who put a stop to the violence. Thus ended the bloodiest two decades in Dallas history. The appendix contains testimonies, transcripts of recorded conversations, and progress reports on some of the still-unsolved murders from this shocking, full-scale gangland war that happened in Texas.

This is an excellent book. As a 74 year old Jewish native Houstonian I could not put it down. I strongly recommend it to anyone interested in Texas history, even if they are not Jewish.

This is an excellent book for anyone who wants to know more about Texas than football & beer!

This book delves into a part of Texas history that has been ignored. Hollace wrote with a very interesting style that kept me totaly involved until I finished. It is one of those books that you feel you become one with and never want it to end.

Hollace Weiner's writing kept me enthralled. This book is the rare combination of careful and accurate research while the presentation is that of an enticing historical novel. It's loaded with all the goods - mystery, politics, romance and more, but all the accounts are true. I couldn't put this book down as every chapter had a fresh and intriguing draw. The facts themselves are fascinating. Written in Ms. Weiner's engaging style, this book is a big winner. I give lectures on small-town synagogues and Jewish communities and I have already used some of the great new research covered in her book.

It is a very well written book which documents the great impact these Jewish Rabbis had on the people of Texas in general.

Since Joe Coomer and I are distant relatives (cousins by marriage), I've been reading his books for about four years. I started with KENTUCKY LOVE because that's where his ancestors and mine began. What a book that was!

Then I read three more, in no particular order, so I'm wandering helter-skelter through his writing career ... and enjoying every moment of these fine reads.

Each book I read is so unique from the other, but each has common threads: warmth, love of family and friends, love of life, life lessons, smooth reading, realistic characters, etc.

I really looooooove the concept of ONE VACANT CHAIR, and appreciate finely-drawn characters who have unusual jobs in life.

Go, Joe!!! (And congratulations on the movie deal on THE LOOP. Can't wait to see the movie!)

This story has everything I look for in a book: excellent characters who evolve; a good, strong plot; romance; and humor.

Sarah is a fourty-something mother whose husband has betrayed her and whose grandmother has just died. She takes refuge with and also takes care of her grieving Aunt Edna, grandmother's caretaker for the last 20 some years.

The cast of characters includes a blind black man who repairs the chairs that Edna endlessly paints, the rest of the family who are quite quirky and a southern baptist minister with a bad toupee.

There's old family squabbles, new acquaintance mystery. And most of all, there's a big old life lesson - what you see is not always what you get. It's all in what you choose to see.

This is not quite a light read; it's a lot thicker than that. But it is utterly lovely.

(*)>

"We were two fat women, eighteen years apart, a chair artist and a designer of Christmas ornaments, who only knew we had troubles and a hot summer to get through," says Sarah. But as it turns out, there is a great deal more to quirky Aunt Edna's troubles than Sarah could possibly imagine. As the novel turns from the hot, oppressive heat of Texas to the misty beauty of Scotland, she learns of her aunt's remarkable secret life and comes to fully understand the fragile business of living, and even of dying.
My reviewing experience is minimal, but it would be remiss of me to not let you know how much I enjoyed this book. Joe Coomer's book "One Vacant Chair" is one of the most well-written stories that I have ever read. If you have the time this summer and you're looking for a great read, try this book. You won't be disappointed.
"It's where you sit down that determines everything in life."

This book works on so many different levels. It's a great read that's hard to put down once you start. It has wonderfully fleshed out characters who come to life on the page. The themes are compelling, and Coomer handles them with a strong sense of humor and sensitivity. The discussion of art technique adds another interesting dimension. All in all, I loved this book!

Friends and family have been phoned and emailed with the rave review I've given this book. Funny, touching, sweet, and spicy---it has everything you hope a book will have, and then some. Realistic characters, great dialog and a realistic plot kept me reading well into the night. Tell your friends...they'll thank you.

I had really almost decided to stop buying Junior League Cookbooks. They had all started to look about the same, recipe wise, with little if any regional feel to them. (and you guys in north dakota can just leave out the tex-mex, ok?) But I am extremely happy that I have this one. The book is a work of art in itself, with really nice design to it, and at least a hardback/spiral not a plastic comb (I know, some cookbooks could not afford to see the light of day without that)- but these recipes are terrific, very texan, and have for the most part left out the huge amounts of filler recipes that so many junior league cookbooks have started to have- like endless lasagna dishes, italian, etc. Well Done! I would have bought a few more for friends if I had any, IF they had left out more of the 'canned' sorts of things.... but there is not an overwhelming amount of that, like there was in the '60's.

South Texas women have always had a flair for entertaining. Nothing is ever ordinary! The book is filled with fresh ideas in a creative ensemble of South Texas cuisine. Recipes are easy to follow and offer a twist to the overly detailed companions. Your friends will delight in your cooking and be so ever inquisitive of the recipes, this I know from experience!

South Texas women have always had a flair for entertaining. Nothing is ever ordinary! The book is filled with fresh ideas in a creative ensemble of South Texas cuisine. Recipes are easy to follow and offer a twist to the overly detailed companions. Your friends will delight in your cooking and be so ever inquisitive of the recipes, this I know from experience!

This Cookbook has a lot of unique recepies that are very easy and and delicious. The variety also makes it easy to do a complete meal from the cook book.

This is a great cookbook! There are great recipes for casual entertaining with ingredients that are easy to find. I collect JL cookbooks from all over the US and this is one of my favorites. Maybe because there are lots of Tex-Mex and appetizers.

THIS IS SUCH A GOOD BOOK. I first picked up when I was in middle school (a very long time ago) and I try my hardest to read it again every few years. The characters are delightful and the entire book is a such a beautiful story. Highly Recommend It.

Although I read this book like 5 months ago I can still remember what it was about!! I can't even describe this book it was so amazing! To all readers out there: read this book you will fall in love with it!

This is a great book. It shows wonderful examples of joy, pain, love, friendship, and sorrow. Roxanne comes into Jesse's life and they become best friends. Roxanne is kind of the outcast of Ida. With her bubbly personality, giant coat, wild red hair, and Liberty Bell tattoo, people look at her as a definate outcast. Roxanne teaches jesse the magic of life and they bond. This is a wonderful book for all ages. a must!!!

I give Under The Mermaid Angel two thumbs up.
It is a good book to read if you'r feeling really down and depressed and you just want a really good book to read to so totally boost up you'r spirit.

I read this book when I was twelve. It is still my favorite book. And when I read it, I finished it in 2 days! I couldn't put the book down. It is not tons of adventure on every page but it is soo interesting. I felt connected to Jesse. Well, Jesse feels kinda in a rut in a very boring town (Ida). But when roxanne moves in she changes Jesses life. They become best friends even though the big age difference. I think the climax of the book was when Roxanne wanted to touch Frankenstiens hand at the church and she didn't. I thought it was so sad that she sat next to him but never said or did anything. And he never knew. And that she came all the way to Ida and sat next to him and never told him. Very sad. At the end of the book. I wished that it would go on. I wish Martha Moore would make a sequel. Because I want to know if Frankenstien ever found out about his mother.

Excellent book. Have read and will reread this book again. My library contains science fiction to romance. All books I love and reread.

I love this book! Wonderful, yet heart wrenching re-telling of the Cherokee way of life and the hardships they withstood from being forced off their lands and moved to Oklahoma. Yes it was good about Sam Houston, but my interest was caught of the telling of the Cherokee life and the Trail of Tears. I could not put this book down. I have read it more than once. I bought this book 12 yrs ago. Still a great book!

Tiana is the most incredible characters I've ever read about. Reading this books made me feel like I was stepping back in time to the days when the Cherokee were free and powerful. Luicia St. Clair Robinson does a remarkable job in researching the people and their culture. In this book you learn about Sam Houston, the development of the Cherokee Syllubus, Tecumseh, and the strengh of a Cherokee Woman.

As she did in her superb novel, "Ride the Wind", Ms. Robson once again gives us a fascinating novel of real people and the events as they might well have been. Although "fictional" the story is true. Sam Houston did indeed have a Cherokee wife and their love story, although a scandal in its day, was indeed a true romance. Get a snack, curl up on the couch, and enjoy.

This was an excellent book, I read years ago. One that changed my life. Who Tiana Rogers was and the way she is portrayed in the book, gave me a role model to follow, in a time when I really needed one. This is a book that touched my soul, and I highly recommend it to anyone who's attention it called. It's a beatiful story and one that you'll never forget.

This is really a cute book and I know my niece will really enjoy it. I recommend buying and reading it to all children. It is truly fun.

The Western flavor (hot peppers and all) of this Jan Brett story comes with lots of Western dialogue and animals--armadillos, as the title suggests.

Bo the fourth of a set of armadillo brothers, and gets himself into a pickle now and again, especially since (typical of armadillos) he can't see too well. In this tale, Bo wanders off after a lizard and ends up mistakenly following a red cowboy boot.

The boot wearer, like Bo, is a bit green around the ears. She's trying to make them look well worn.

Trailing the boot, Bo rounds his way into the rodeo ring, across a cook out, and into a dance hall. Finally he figures out that he's befriended a boot.

This was one of our least favorite Jan Brett stories. Still, it's better than a lot of children's fare making the store shelves these days, just for the illustrations alone.

This book is really cute! The 7 year old boy I purchased it for wants to read it over and over again! The illustrations are really colorful and well done. This is the type of book that is great fun for a boy or girl - ages 4 to 8, I should think. The author, Jan Brett, is very clever. I will look for more of this authors books in the future for children on my gift list.
Loriann Ringgold
Elko, NV

For children and for those who just love that critter I love so...you will enjoy this book very much. With a delightful story and wonderful illustrations, it is sure to please.

A slightly different tale from Jan Brett. Gone is the European feel of so many of her books. It is replaced by a healthy jargon-filled dose of American Western. Gone are the hedgehogs; welcome the armadillos.

Bo is one of four armadillo brothers. He tends to be curious and wander so his mother tries to keep a close watch on him. Like all armadillos, Bo's eyesight is not very good. So one day while he is following a lizard, he sees a red cowboy boot and thinks it is a red armadillo.

The boot in question is being worn by a young girl who is trying to scuff them up so she won't look like a tenderfoot at the rodeo. But Bo does not see the girl, or the other boot for that matter. Instead, he thinks he has found a playful new friend.

Chasing after the boot, Bo has many experiences while his mother and brothers search for him (as seen in the side panels). Bo's adventure takes him across the rodeo arena, to a bar-b-que, into an encounter with a jalapeno, to a barn dance, a hayloft, and ultimately to the truth about his new friend.

In the end we learn that while Bo has learned the truth of his day's adventures, he knows just what to do when he feels a little mischievous.

I usually give Jan Brett's books five stars but gave this one only four. I did that only because of the heavy use of Western jargon that needs to be explained to young ears in order for the story to make sense. But it is still a very fun book with beautiful illustrations.

This edition doesn't have the photograph of the original letter addressed to Eleanor Roosevelt with her marginalia and then FDR's marginalia saying "This man is not a nut - FDR" But it's a MUST for any history buff.

GREAT book!

Wonderfully humorous and hilarious factual account of one of the most bizarre "weapons" developed by the United States during WW-II.

Dr. Lytle S. Adams, an oral surgeon and inventor proposed bombing Japan with millions of delayed-action incendiary bombs attached to bats. His letter was forwarded to Roosevelt who endorsed the plan -- "This man is not a nut."

Jack Couffer was a 17-year-old senior at Glendale High School in California at the start of the war and worked part time in for Jack C von Bloeker, Jr., an authority on bats. Both men joined Project X-Ray under Dr. Adams, a group which included Louis F. Fieser, an expert on incendiaries, Patricio (Patsy) Batista, a "colleague" of Al Capone; and Tim Holt, an actor and flight-test bombardier.

There were millions of Mexican free-tailed bats in Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, and experiments showed a bat could carry its own weight. Fieser produced a napalm bomb with a time-delay fuse. Bat and bomb weighed about an ounce.

Carlsbad Caverns proved too public and a Texas guano miner led the team to two caves containing about 30 million bats. One of the best sections of the books discusses these caves and how the bats lived in them.

Project X-Ray designed a sheet-metal bomb that held 1,040 bats. At 4,000 feet, an altimeter triggered a parachute, released the bats, and pulled the pins on the times fuses. A test worked perfectly, too perfectly in fact. Six bats burned down a new air base in New Mexico.

Couffer assembled many formerly classified documents to tell the story, but has to speculate on why the project was terminated in 1944. The closest thing to an explanation comes in this extraordinary passage from the book:

"I heard the damnedest thing while I was in D.C.," Doc [Adams] said when he got back from Washington. "Some general I met regarding appropriations confused our secret project with another secret project that's apparently going on somewhere. It's the silliest nonsense you ever heard of. And evidently this project has got the backing of the president and they're blowing millions of dollars on it."

Von Bloeker looked up through his smoke and frowned.

"This general practically threw me out of his office, he was so enraged at the waste of time and money. `Don't tell me you're the one promoting that crazy notion of making bombs out of atoms?'"

"I had a hell of a time convincing him I had nothing to do with that kind of fraud," Doc continued.

"What are atoms?" Frank Benish asked.

"The smallest particles of matter. You know, everything's made out of cells. You break down cells and you've got something even smaller--- atoms --- something like that."

"And they think they can make bombs out of them?" Benish shook his head. "Man, they don't know sic `em from come here."

"Can you imagine such an idea?" Doc said. "They're throwing away millions, and I can't get a staff car and driver!"

"Where's all this happening?"

Doc shrugged. "As soon as he found out I had nothing to do with it he clammed up. But he first got the idea I was involved when I said we had some work to do in New Mexico."

"Unbelievable!"

"Yeah! We got a sure thing like the bat bomb going, something that could really win the war, and they're jerking off with tiny little atoms. It makes me want to cry."

***

This book is a wonderful adventure story, but more than that, a true story of American ingenuity at war. I enjoyed reading every minute of it.

Robert C. Ross 2008

An unknown but funny and very well-written chapter in history. The bat bomb carried zillions of bats, each of which had an incendiary device tied to it. The goal was to burn down Japanese towns. During its first test, it accidentally burned down the building housing the project! Talk about just desserts. This will cure anyone who thinks history is boring.

This book contains the funniest line I have ever read, already quoted by another reviewer: "We got a sure thing like the bat bomb going...." But there is much more to this book. The writing is incredible. For example, the author describes what happens when they use movie lights to illuminate the inside of one cave for the first time in its history. The description of almost being suffocated by clouds of bats so thick is first rate. Also, the tender retelling of his romance with Arlie is top notch. Who would have expected such deft handling of first love in a book about bat bombs? It made me want more of this material. I also treasured the retelling of the tiger mascot, "Top Sarge." Or when our hero tries to beat the cowboys at their own game in calf-roping. I could go on and on. I think the key to the success of this book is how the author treats all the characters with upmost respect. There is nothing snarky about how the author treats the self-important Patsy, who was Capone's driver, or the guano salesman.

Read this book. You won't be disappointed.

The Burning Plain is about fifteen emotional stories. The stories give the reader a lot to think about. Many of these stories are short interesting stories that give the reader what to think about, action, sad parts, and contains nasty events when people are killed. We recommend the book to the readers because it is a very interesting book because the way many short stories are put into one book. The book will make the reader feel grossed out because in the ways some people are killed. All of these stories take place in a rural place. For, example Talpa takes place in a village as well as Luvina. In the story Macario the setting is in a house.

One regrettable consequence of Garcia Marquez's fame is that Latin American literature has come to be identified exclusively with "magical realism". Everything has to be extraordinary, epic, full of tropical lust, palms, jaguars, people having sex in every corner, flying to the sky with a pineapple on their heads. But Latin America is a vast continent producing artist of universal stature, even if the rest of the world decides (to their disadvantage) to ignore all but the folkloric.

Well, Juan Rulfo is a master of the highest sort and this book is NOT magical realism, but pure, hard realism. He only wrote two books, this one and "Pedro Paramo", another masterpiece which I also don't count as magical realism, although some do, as well as a few lesser works. He didn't need to write much. His is a literature worked and reworked restlessly, until reaching perfection. Every single word fits perfectly with the rest. There are no digressions, no philosophy, no theories or grand landscapes. All his tales develop in Southern Jalisco, in a poor, dry, vast, sunburned and sad land. The prose is also dry, precise, economical and to the point. The characters are ignorant, miserable, but conscious and courageous. The titles say much: "It's because we are so poor" is one of them. However, you will not find self-pity or corny sad tales. Only bits of human misery perfectly narrated. By the way, this is the first review I write for Amazon in which I use the word "perfect". Probably it won't happen again, with one or two exceptions.

The Burning Plains is a compilation of short stories that Juan Rulfo published on diferent publications at different times. it's also at the moment, besides his masterpiece Pedro Paramo, the only material available.
The shorts stories are chilling, incledibly well written. It's superb, and the english translation more than acceptable.
To me the highlights of the book are "Talpa" and "they have given us the land" (the opener on the spanish version, but some reason is not on this english edition)but the whole book is amazing.
I bought this book for my girfriend as an exorsism from jennifer Wiener's "Good in Bed" I was worried about the translation but it didn't dissapoint me.
the ideal way to read The Burning Plain is in spanish, but since this book is not that surreal as pedro paramo is, this tranlation works just fine.
I hope this brief note helps you to choose a good book.

Rulfo's style, like his stories, is sparse, quiet, and often harsh. He offers disturbing tales of miserable people in barren places; yet there is also a strange beauty to be found in his work. I can think of few, if any, examples of such perfect prose. The characters--though they suffer--seem close at hand and perfectly real, and he gives the most incredible descriptions of landscapes that I have ever read in my life. It is easy to see his connection to "magical realism"--it is largely in the way he sets the tone of the stories, and in those unbelievably vivid descriptions--but his work does not fall into that category. There is no escaping the terribly blunt reality he creates.

Whether you are interested in Latin American literature or not, if you are at all interested in prose, you should read this book.

ANGST. This is the best word to describe the human landscape that Rulfo has portrayed in this collection of short stories. A lanscape of extreme sorrow that blossoms over the arid plain, where poverty, opression and ignorance intermingle with faith to shape the tragedy of the post-revolutionary rural Mexico. A tragedy that has lived over 70 years and that may help explaining the nature of the mexican people, their doings and fears. But moreover its social meanings, Juan Rulfo, has created a masterpiece of storytelling, not only at the Latin-american level, but rather as an universal gift. This is not magic realism alà Garcia Marquez or Isabel Allende. This is bare boned reality, told with the beauty and the ease that just a master can reach, in which the words mix perfectly for creating short bursts of narrative, perfectly solved stories, that will fill the mind, the mouth and the eyes of the reader with the burnt sand of the plains, with the ashes of the dead, with the tears of the desperate. If you're ready to follow Tanilo's bloody footsteps toward Talpa, to hunt toads with Macario, or to fall under the spell of Niño Anacleto's preaching, or under the spell of misterious rural Mexico, dive into the pages of this collection of short stories, and compare it with any other you have already read, and you will understand why Rulfo never writed any further. Because he almost reached perfection.

Hardy has written a meticulous and incisive book on TVZ that is sure to please TVZ fans. I have not read John Kruth's bio on TVZ so I cannot compare the two. Nevertheless, I was quite pleased with the ethos of this bio and am sure other TVZ fans will appreciate it in kind. Despite Hardy's obvious awe of Townes, "A Deeper Blue" does not come off unctuous. It never approaches hagiography, and comes fairly close to being quite objective. Moreover, the narrative methodically unravels, yet is consistently interesting. It is well-written and overall, offers a thorough and compelling portrait of TVZ. I'm glad I bought it.

Townes Van Zandt was a cult musician with a lot of demons like mental illness and alcoholism and drug abuse. It's all catalogued here for those who care. He left a lot of recordings, but never quite achieved the kind of fame he may have deserved. I'm not sure how thoroughly this book was researched, because I know of at least one manager of Van Zandt's who is not even mentioned. Still, it's unlikely that anything better will be done for a long time.

If I had 10 or more years to do the research Hardy has done (and I could write) I would not have done better myself. I could not detect one false note or major factual error in the covering of Townes 52 years. This book is a joy to read and gives a very close account and filling in of many "missing years" that had never been shared before now. The album and song reviews are well done, and the adherence to chronology is most rewarding. Highest recommendation.

Hardy's long-awaited biography of Townes Van Zandt pretty much gets everything right. This is an excellent work. Hardy's treatment of Van Zandt's life is appropriately thorough, but it isn't at all tedious. I know that this book was exhaustively researched (and in the interest of disclosure I should say that I contributed some research). It is also clearly a labor of love - Hardy is a fan - but he has not succumbed to the tendencies of so many biographers to gush or to simply list everything he learned over the years about his subject's life.
What Hardy says about Van Zandt's song "Waitin' Around To Die" is also true about this book: The archetypical story is well-told. To the extent that Van Zandt's story is a sad one, this book, "bears the weight of its seriousness almost effortlessly. . . it is handled so deftly that there is no sense of it being maudlin." But the details of Van Zandt's drinking and drug use are not glossed over or glamorized. Hardy is objective; he doesn't vilify anyone, and he lets the narrative speak for itself.
This book is well-written, well-organized, insightful and quite moving too. It's the one to read if you're seriously interested in Townes Van Zandt. And you should be.

This is an excellent biography. Townes' story is assuredly a sad one but he left a legacy of unparalleled songs. I actually put off finishing the book for almost a month just because I didn't want to read the end...I already knew what happened but it didn't make reading a detailed account of his last days any easier.

I've also read the other biography out there, To Live's To Fly, and there's simply no comparison. TLTF was largely anecdotal and the author broke a key rule of biography writing by attempting to project his own importance into the story; Hardy has simply done an exhaustive amount of research and cites all of his sources. He presents the story and then steps aside, so this is the one to go with if you want a more factual recounting of Townes' life. 100% worth the price and read if you're a fan, and if you aren't it just might convert you.