Texas Books

This story is hard to imagine anyone living through. Mr. Ladd's accomplishments are outstanding. This brings a reality to the reader that most people have no idea exists except those living it. This autobiography also shows the power of determination, attitude and self-reliance.

This should be inspiring and educational to young people especially but also to adults who can see the world from a young black man's perspective. Ladd allows us to walk in his shoes for a while; it is a privilege and a lesson.

The narrator for the audiocassette does an excellent job reading the book.

This story reminded me of "Finding Fish" by Antwoine Fisher, another great, inspiring story.

As a 24 yearold 1st yr. teacher in West Dallas I have been looking for answers. I work at the Middle School across from the projects referred to in this book. I am not too far from "Fishtrap", and the gangs (boyz) have changed from Ladd's time but only by the faces of their members. Some of the most infamous being my most delightful students. My kids are not like all of the others in America. They are different...special even and Jerrold Ladd told me why. As I read this book with every page I turned I anticipated that the "story" would get better. I prayed that his mother would change. I longed for the chapter when some long lost Great-Uncle from Georgia would come and take him from the reality of his torrid life. But it never happened. And I became frustarted because my students do not have anyone to rescue them from their realities, not for the long haul at least. Jerrold Ladd's book explained to me the generational frustaration that West Dallas incorporates. The resentment and struggle of blocks and blocks of people is the only thing this community truly owns. Ladd wrote the testament and explanation of a community's fear. His hopes and fears were evident on every page of this book. I only wish that my studenrs could take time from their troubles of hunger, fear, anger, and poverty to big up this reflection of possible positive self. Thank you for this invaluable tool of living and learning.

As a 24 yearold 1st year Teacher in West Dallas I have looked for reasons as to why my students (my kids) as I call them are the way they are. I teach eighth grade History at Thomas Edison Middle Learning Center which is located across the street from the projects referred to by Mr. Ladd. I can testify that all of my 109 students are the soul of Jerrold Ladd.

I have gone home frustrated many nights, crying myself to sleep distraught over what my kids must face at home from day to day after a long day at school. Mr. Ladd brought home the realities of my student lives. He pushed their questionable futures to the forefront of my classroom and by this Christmas I was sad to see them go. I was sad because I questioned how many of them would bathe without the motivation of not being ridiculed by mean classmates. I was sad because I wondered to what length one of my kids would go to pay his mother's rent, the same mother who stood in front of me and her precious son parent-confrence night and stated how he was a waste of 13 years.

As I turned the pages of this book I waited with each page for Mr. Ladd's situation to get better. Similarly, as I come to work everyday I look for my kids situation to get better. In the final ten to twelve pages of this testament to the community of West Dallas I finally saw inspiration and hope, however I shudder to think how long it will take the children of West Dallas to see the same thing.

Jerrold Ladd thank you for this guide into the minds of my babies. It is a invaluable tool.

I am a freshman student at my high school, and was assigned to a book report... I then choose this book, yet not out of wantingness, but just to get something and be done with it. When I started this book, I was so amazed at the details, and way Jerrold lived, with such horrific times in his live from his living style, to growing up, and all the obstacles, and problems that occured in his life. It was so sad, yet you cant put it down.

Excellent writing from a motivated and dedicated young man. Jerrold Ladd experienced disrupted education, a lack of early age positive male influence while proving first hand, that you can over come all obstacles and succeed in America.

It is a gut wrenching look into living in America's projects shortly after desegregation. It reminded me of the fact that life in America is not and has never been the same for everyone. For many, it is a living torture. Once you have read Out Of The Madness, you feel like you personally know the author. The author, Jerrold Ladd, tells an in-depth story about his life, his family (Mother, sister and brother) and some of his friends and associates. He provides an incredible amount of detail for a relatively short book (under 200 pages and large print). He allowed me to walk in his foot steps, feeling his disappointments, success's and failures. Each chapter presented intense quality of life and life treating situations that would test and potentially break the fiber of any man or woman. Jerrold exposes himself, his friends and associates in a bold and remarkable manner that allows you to actually feel his emotions. This book is a dead serious look at life within a segment of America, yesterday and today. The book reminds you that to many people (children and adults), needlessly, experience this and worst everyday. I recommend the book as a must read for everyone. My reason: This book provides an insight into a situation that many generations of Americans helped create. It gives motivation to those in similar situations and those that have not lived integrated into murder, drugs and abuse. Most of all, it proves, in America you can change your life.

Bill Wrights' PEOPLE'S LIVES is a straightforward approach that uses photography to show that our skins may be different colors, and our cultures may be diverse, but we are all tied together as members of the same humanity. Bill Wright is a photographer that shows us the world without making us voyeurs. His photographs invite us to have a clear understanding of our part in the family of man.

Bill Wright is an exceptional talent. His photographs celebrate the strength, courage, joy and hope of humanity. Mr. Wright's travels have taken him just about everywhere from Nepal to New York City. His images reveal an intimate view of the extra ordinary folks he encounters along the way.

A beautifully simple and simply beautiful book. Wonderfully seen photographs that really do capture and celebrate the human spirit. So many other photography books seem to be published solely to be jarring, hip, and fashionable. People's Lives stands out from this crowd as genuine, authentic, and mostly, just plain real. Well worth the price of admission to this more gentle view of our world.

Bill Wright's latest book is his best to date. Once you open the book, start looking at the beautiful images and read the text, you will become so engrossed you will not be able to put it down until you have read every page and studied every picture. With so many things happening in the world that are so negative, this book is extremely uplifting. Wright's book is a testament that the human spirit is alive and well and thriving everywhere...........you just have to look for it.

Bill Wright's wonderful photographs and commentary have a unique abilty to draw the reader/viewer into an emotional attachment to his subjects. I've yet to see one that didn't make me think, "I'd like to know this person."

I have visited the Big Bend more than two dozen times over more than that many years and have never found a book that captured the land and the people as well as this one by Bill Wright. I remember years ago searching for something like this. I could only find a photo book of the canyons back then but this is a book with much greater depth and it did not stop at just the geological. Wright does a top notch job of introducing the wild characters who inhabit the spaces between mountain and desert; the ones who live on the sand road that goes back behind the mesa. You won't regreat adding this book to your home library.

I live in the greater Big Bend area; and, was surprised to discover my newest neighbors were Bill and Alice Wright. Bill's reputation is that of a great photographer; but, it will become immediately apparent to you when you read this book, that Bill is a great story teller. You will not soon lay this book down, nor forget the colorful stories revealed in his experiences of the Big Bend area.

This fine book will give the reader a good look and feel for the Big Bend of Texas.

Although I am a native Texan, I have never visited Big Bend. Through the author's experiences with the people he met along the way, Big Bend has become more than the awesome pictures. I'm planning a trip. Bill Wright is a wonderful writer as well as photographer - I hope there are more books to come. Sounds as if he has travelled the world.

Photographer and writer Bill Wright comes from the West Texas town of Abilene: roughly eight hours drive at a steady seventy from his beloved Big Bend National Park. In Texas that, along with the fact that he's been visiting the park since childhood, pretty much makes him a local.

Texas has a considerable modern history, quite apart from it's more ancient nomadic inhabitants, and Wright maintains a consciousness of this in his travels through these southern borderlands of the USA. Passport controls do indeed exist at the border bridges into Mexico, along with stern warnings that it is illegal for Texans to carry guns into the neighbouring country, but the border patrols continue for nearly sixty miles across the desert into the USA with major checkpoints ocurring at the towns of Marfa and Marathon. The area South of these checkpoints, where Wright's portraits were made, are known as The Badlands and have been for the past 150 years.

Put simply Wright has an abundance of curiosity, the essential requirement of the documentary photographer; and a considerable degree of patience in the fact that he only really began making this book after a lifetime of visits. Be he visiting with the photographer Etta Koch, writing about "Crazy" Angie, who apparently isn't and operates the theatre at Terlingua Ghost Town, or photographing the rancher Buck Newsome, the white hat line on whose forehead clearly explaining how his life has been spent, Wright, while mentioning the people he was with and the details of the trip, never puts himself over the people or places he introduces to his readers. The border in West Texas might be described as permeable, with several unguarded but regularly used fords exisiting along the river. One such ford exists at a place called Lajitas, today a resort town bought lock stock and barrel by a billionaire and now boasting "the world's only international golf course", but Bill Wright digs deeper under the surface harking back to the time when the ford was an important crossing on the trail from Mexico city to the Spanish province of Nueva Viscaya. He remarks upon the "politically constructed" nature of the border between the States and their Southern neighbour, and the fact that locals continue to move freely across the Rio Grande even to this day. In an aside his thoughts wander to the realisation that where in the past Texas Rangers patrolled these areas, to keep international cattle rustling to a minimum, today the trade is reversed and the border patrols and enforcement agencies are more concerned with preventing the importation of illegal drugs. But for the local populace life continues much the same and Spanish remains the predominant language.

In many ways the story as a whole is about Wright and his experiences, but more about the manner in which the place molded him over the years than any form of personal recollection. For Texas is very much about the land. He has been absolutely true to his subjects and in this book he presents that very rare sort of travelogue that will be enjoyed by visitors, people who only ever visit far flung lands from the comfort of their own living rooms, and especially the residents of the Big Bend itself; who will understand.

This is my first saga so I didn't really know what to expect from it but I found it to be enjoyable. I did have a little problem with remembering who was related to who because they go through so many generations of people with strange names and some of the people have the same name but I got used to it after a while.

The first part of the book quickly goes through a few generations of vikings until it gets to the forming of the Jomsvikings who are the best of the best viking warriors who fear nothing. During a feast many of them make an oath to go to Norway and help take the crown so thats what they go do then a major sea battle takes place. After the battle some of the Jomsviking get captured then they are killed one at a time after telling their captures that they don't fear death but welcome it, which is the best part of the book.

I was able to read through this book without much difficulty in a very short time and I would recommend it to anyone who like viking sagas about fearless warriors.

A common theme in the Nordic sagas, was the formation of a close-knit band of Vikings, sworn to a particular task or mission. The Jomsvikings were very likely the most legendary group such as this. They were a collection of elite mercenaries from all over the Scandinavian lands, mostly from Norway. Their mission, to restore a king to the throne of Norway. Those who would join the organization had to pass an initiation phase, where their skills and endurance as warriors were tested. They had a charter of rules and standing orders, and operated out of a fortified island base on Jomsborg. In short, they were very much an early medieval special-operations unit. Sadly, they were defeated in the final battle at the end of the saga, but not without causing grievous damage to the opposing force. Most telling, is the valiant conduct of the Jomsvikings taken prisoner at this battle, and their reversal of a truly dismal fate! This scene alone is Viking valor at its highest! Even in defeat, they acquire glory, with a good ending for all.

Saga mostly concentrating on an elite band of Viking warriors known as the JomsVikings. Packed with blood and gore from beginning to end, even human sacrifices to gain favor from the Gods in battle!

...And I'm not kidding.

The Saga of the Jomsvikings is just about the best of the sagas (with the exception of, perhaps, the Laxdale Saga). The action is almost non-stop (once you get through the ponderous, but still interesting, introduction) and gives you a good idea about what the 12th-14th century poets/historians thought 9th-10th century exploits.

The most compelling chapter is chapter 23 where, as stated in the introduction, the author shows us the face of "...Men who know how to die." There is no hyperbole in this statement, and has, I'm sure, been the impetus for more than one writer/screenwriter (insert sly sidewise look toward Michael Crighton here).

This was only my second saga so I can't really compare it to many others. Having said that, this is a great saga to start out with. As expressed in previous reviews, "The Testing of the Jom'svikings" (chapter 23) is a great example of courage; men are able to face death completely void of all apparent fear, without so much as flinching at the blow of the sword. The excitement level is kept up very well throughout the story, especially for a tale which jumps around from different generations and countries as much as this. I never felt bored or that the book was slow moving. In other words, there was no constant strain for action. While it may be hard for the novice of the saga to get used to the long range of generations throughout the story, once you become used to it it becomes natural and easlily comprehensible.
Although many have expressed in previous reviews that the introduction was boring, I found it not too different from many other critical introductions I have read before. The introduction does what it needs to do, gives the reader an insight and an overview of the material that is to be read.

This is an astonishing book, one that defies easy categorization or even any categorization at all. It is by turns
thought-provoking, horrifying, and inspiring, and the buyer will never regret the money spent on it. This book will stay with the reader for a long time to come.

I haven't read the book yet, but the cover image is amazing!

I read this book a couple of years and found it amazing!
It's heartbreaking, bloodchilling, and inspiring, all in one
book. These are stories that often remain untold and hidden in our culture, yet they are a distinct and vital part of
our national experience. I read the first edition, by the way,
and I now plan to buy the second, updated edition, which I
anticipate will deal with the World Trade Center attacks, the
Pentagon attack, and the Shencksville, PA, air crash. If you
buy one book this year, buy this one!

Excellent overview of why we choose to designate tragic events in some cases, and hush-up others shamefully. Poignant, original...no other book so comprehensively covers the geography of painful memorials. An interesting sequel could be written regarding domestic terrorism, not just in America, but regarding other countries' place-memorials of such events.

If you arrange your library by category you may have trouble with this book. History? True Crime? Cultural Geography? Anthropology? Sociology? American Studies?

The book covers the sites of disaster, assassination, murder and accident all across America, including nearly every site and shrine in Texas. We review it not just for it's interesting content, but its coverage of a most unusual type of geography. It's a thought-provoking book at how, why and in what manner we deal with the sites of violence (and tragedy).

The individual stories of the incidents are told completely, but without distracting from the book's theme.

It's a unique book and should remain so for some time. Foote's thoroughness guarantees that.

Caleb's adventures take him through the Civil War, buffalo hunts, Indian Wars, and barroom shoot outs. During these times he meets a Comanche slave woman who kidnaps him, and a renegade Arapaho who likes scalping people, and finally meets Marisol a Mexican beauty who gives him his children and wins his love. Some times the story slows down quite a bit and other times you won't want to put it down.

I'm going to add my five stars to the list, because Mike Blakely deserves it. This book delves into the life of young Caleb Holcomb, and we get to watch him grow up. It, like Kirby Jonas books I'm always touting, is not your standard western, but it is a good homespun tale all the same. Caleb is heroic without being super human, and you will fall in love with his affable, musical character who is always finding almost too much trouble for him to handle. Read Mike Blakely and anything by Kirby Jonas, and you won't need to turn anywhere else. If these two authors ever got together they would have a lot in common and a lot to talk about. You can bet they would be friends!

This book is EXCELLENT !!! Anyone who has any intrest in the old west should read this book !!!! It is absolutely amazing !!!!! The writer has such style and grace !!! He is an amazing writer and I think he is great!

It is hard to imagine a more comprehensive, satisfying read in the western genre. Blakely's characters are real people. We care about them, and feel as if we know them. I always look forward to Mike Blakely's efforts. Even if your not a regular reader of westerns, give this book a chance. But be prepared to be spoiled. "Formula" westerns will pale by comparison.

Note: I have begun reading the sequel, "Too Long at the Dance" and find it well-crafted as well.

The youngest son of two american pioneers, Caleb Holcomb tries desperately to show his manhood. The plot is well developed as Caleb picks and chooses the adventures in his life. Blakely uses accurate historical insight as well as first hand knowledge of the cowboy way to show his readers what growing up in the 1800's was like. A true american storyteller Blakely has turned out another timeless classic with "Shortgrass Song"

Alma Schindler was a piece of work who went on to inspire a number of others, notably the first movement of husband Gustav Mahler's sixth symphony and lover Oskar Koskoschka's most famous painting, Bride of the Wind. After Mahler's death and her fling with Kokoschka, Alma married architect Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus. After their divorce, she married novelist and playwright Franz Werfel - an unjustly neglected figure best known today for the novel The Song of Bernadette and the play Jacobowsky and the Colonel - who called Alma "one of the very few magical women who exist."

She continues to inspire, as demonstrated by "Counterpoint," a 10-poem sequence that forms the second part of Skin, April Lindner's debut volume of verse. "Counterpoint" is subtitled "Poems on the Life of Alma Mahler Werfel" and follows Alma from her childhood visits to her father's studio (Emile Schindler was a well-known landscape painter), when she would "practice keeping still... to watch his hand propel the brush," up to 1964 in New York City, when she finds that death "is handsome /... and he, too, needs me /... his whispered proposal... clumsy / but ardent..." The sequence ends with a line so good it would be as wrong to quote it as to tell whodunit in a murder mystery.

Skin is the 11th winner of the Walt McDonald First-Book Poetry Prize, awarded by Texas Tech University Press and named in honor of a former TTUP poetry editor. Lindner, who teaches English at St. Joseph's University, seems well-deserving. She has a sharp eye for detail: "daylight, rationed by Venetian slats," "the white moth of a kiss / blown from a boy's plump lips," "burnt / sienna moustache," "milky way of red freckles" - these are picked at random from just two pages. She also has a well-nigh flawless ear for lyrical phrases graced by the uneven rhythm extolled by the French symbolist Paul Verlaine.

Occasionally, especially in the opening section, she gets a little too personal for my taste. Having no wish to be a voyeur, even if invited, I found the intimacies related in "Condom," for instance, off-putting.

But at her best, what she says of contemporary realist painter William Bailey - "once he's got us, he makes us see / deeper than we'd choose" - is also true of Lindner. The last stanza of "Moving" - from one residence to another - transmits a subtly disturbing frisson:

Last, we'll pierce the wall

to hang the faces we call ours:

bride face, groom face, infant face,

their interiors locked and off-limits,

like rooms we lived in, houses ago.

Robert Fink, the man who chose Skin for publication, has written an introduction that offers a "close reading" of Lindner's texts that borders on parody. Oh well. For those who like that sort of thing, that's the sort of thing they like. Read it, if you must, but do yourself and Lindner a favor and read the poems first.

What is it like to live and work and love from inside a woman's skin? I'm a man so I can never know for sure, but SKIN paints such vivid word pictures that it knocked me out of my own skin for a while, and into the author's. These poems are powerful.

I had the chance to hear this author read, and was moved to buy her book, which now is one of my new favorite poetry collections. Her work is sensuous, full of vibrant metaphor and imagery. Some poems are in regular meter, but most are in very musical free verse. The poems stand well alone, but together they read almost novelistically. The book is split into three sections: the first describes a woman's complex relationship with her husband and children, and the third deals mostly with sexual and romantic love. The middle section is a narrative sequence on the life of Alma Mahler, whose curious marital and sexual adventures play nicely against those of the first person narrator in the rest of the book. Best of all, these poems are immediately accessible, and yet yield up more on subsequent rereadings.

Dr. Lindner is my professor at my college, and I knew that she wrote poetry, but I had never read it. Her poetry is phenomenal. It speaks to the heart, the soul, and the mind.

Until a friend recently sent me a copy of Skin, I thought I had left my poetry-reading days back in college along with things like an all-pizza diet, Macroeconomics, and most of my hair.

As it was, the book sat on the shelf for weeks before I cracked it open to take a look. I'd like to be able to put into words just what sort of effect the contents had on me, but now I have an entirely new appreciation of just how limited my expressive talents really are.

Let's just say that, ever since, I have been searching everywhere for more writing by April Lindner. Join me -- you won't regret it.

Bradham's novel portrays the ethical conflicts a social worker faces in dealing with neglected children. The novel is suspenseful and troubling in a good way. She makes you think hard about whether or not Eugenia Putman is in any way ethical. There is a Swiftian sensibility to her writing, which makes the horror of the story all the more real. Overall, the elements of fiction writing, and the use of irony are especially strong. This is not a book that is easy to put down. I taught it with great success in a literature survey class last year. The students were moved, and were able to write scholarly papers on the novel, as well.

This novel is just as JoAllen herself said; "It's a quick read, and a long think."

The press may specialize in books about the South, but the book itself deserves the attention of readers everywhere. Those who read for significant, thought-rpvoking subject matter will find it. Those who read for artistic method will rejoice.

SOME PERSONAL PAPERS is the story of Eugenia Putman, an urban social worker, who must deal with some of the saddest stories of child abuse and neglect. Although she tries her best to remain objective, eventually her sense of duty turns her to taking matters into her own hands. With just a few days left before her conviction, she retells what she felt she had to do and why. The story is full of irony as Bradham creates a character who challenges our sense that right and wrong is always clear cut. The plot is suspenseful and the setting is key to the artistry in Bradham's prose. I taught the novel with great success over the last two years, and I highly recommend it.

Some Personal Papers, which recently garnered author, JoAllen Bradham, the Georgia Fiction Writer of the Year Award, is a must read. This exquisitely told story is about Eugenia Putman, "Miss Genie," a dedicated social worker who is forced to make choices regarding the children in her personal care that few of us could ever make. This is a case of when "doing what's best" is, without a doubt, a case of "doing what's worst," but for all of the right reasons. Although it has often been said that actions speak louder than words, Miss Genie's actions cannot even be considered without first reading her story in her own words, words that scream at you about the often painful experience that is life for many people, and particularly for children. This is a story you will not soon forget.

Dawn Miller experiences new beginnings in her life after surviving personal disaster. Unfortunately, her run of sad luck seems to stay on track when she meets her cantankerous new boss, Matt Ivans. But Matt isn't as crabby as he pretends. It isn't long before Dawn warms to the sweet side Matt tries to hide with a sharp word. TEXAS DAWN is a nice read that pleasantly places the reader deep in the hearts of the Lone Star State and two fresh characters. Nice work Cheri!

TEXAS DAWN is an entertaining story filled with humor, romance and suspense. Rugged, tortured hero Matt Ivans meets his match in feisty Dawn Miller. Matt, labeled "Ivans the Terrible" by his coworkers, has sent previous assistants running for cover. Dawn refuses to let her new boss intimidate her. Through determination and humor, she tames Matt and has him purring. His love for Dawn helps Matt overcome an incident in his past that haunts him. Afraid to love Matt because of her own old wounds, Dawn refuses to acknowledge her feelings for him. When a stalker threatens Dawn, Matt comes to her aid. Their hunt for the culprit brings them together and leads to an action-filled, exciting ending. Freed of their pasts, they pledge their love. A fun read with a nail-biter ending.

I loved this book, one of the best Avalon romances, a real page-turner. I read another of Cheri Jetton's books, Blue Plate Special, awhile ago and liked it, also. Good book, good author!

Couldn't put it down. A great story with wonderful characters and even some mystery. A message to the author: You go girl!

The chemistry between Dawn and Matt with dialogue in this book was a page turner. A book that is very hard to put down. Dawn has a fiesty spunk to her that she will not allow any man to bring her down. The character is strong, witty and downright likeable. A strong female that you grow to love immediately when the book opens. The way she stands up to her boss the first day and the strawberry milkshake was really cute. Well readers this is a book that is a must read. You will simply love Dawn and Matt as they struggle through past problems to come to see what is really intented for the two of them. Ms. Jetton weaves a beautiful love story that will touch your heart, and bring joy and laughter with each word you read. If only the world had more protective men in it like Matt. This book deserves a two thumbs up and 6 stars. A great love story!! Cheri Jetton is not only a great writer but a terrific person that is there for anyone in a time of need. I can hardly wait for her next book to come out. Anyone that has not read any of her books you must go out and get them, they are great!!!!

This is a wonderful cookbook. I've made 4 recipies from it that were absolutely outstanding. One recipe in particular...the spanish rice is above and beyond. I think it's because neither me or my husband are big fans of spanish rice and I made it on a whim. It's so good that he's asked for it a couple of times since I made it.
Pictures are wonderful and because I am a Texan I am very pleased with the fact that it's written by someone who has lived here for a long time the recipies are exactly the kinds of things that we would eat.....
I've recommended the book to friends and even bought another one for a gift.

NPSBookie order # 464878 One book, TEXAS ON THE PLATE arrived in a tiemly fshion. However, the spine was broken, and prompt communications from NPSBookie offered a refund since they had no other copy for exchange. I countered with request for a discount. They agreed to a $3.00 discount, and I accepted since I could use the book personally rather than gift as I had anticipated.

The recipes are wonderful and the book itself full of gorgeous photos, drawings and, in general, just wonderfully produced. I'm buying several for Christmas gifts for out-of-state relatives and friends. I'm new to the state and this is a fabulous introduction to the food and customs.

Definitely goes "beyond bbq and chili" to wonderful fusion of the traditional and the most up-to-date. You will not be sorry you bought this.

This is a beautiful cookbook! Even if you have lived in Texas your whole life, you will see places you haven't glimpsed. Having been born in Texas and raised on the variety of foods available here, I love how these recipes take it to a higher level. The recipes are perfect...though not always easy, they are always worthy of the effort. I made the cover dish first thing and got raves from all who ate it. I love the way she pairs the Texas wines with each meal. And she tells so much about Texas...research well done!

Terry Thompson-Anderson has produced a marvelous collection of Texas recipes, beautiful photos of food and scenery from around the Lone Star state, and a wonderful contribution to the exciting new Texas cuisine that is sweeping the southwest and beyond. As a native Texan I found the book not only a delight to the eyes, but a wondrous and far-ranging assortment of recipes with ingredients and influences from all over the state. Of special note are such heady entrees as the "Slow-Smoked Quail on Savory Bread Pudding withThree-Chili Sauce" (using Scamorza Cheese from the Mozzarella Company in Dallas) and the "Grilled Medallions of Venison Backstrap with Ancho Chili and Honey Sauce" - fabulous! Throughout there are wine recommendations from the growing number of Texas wineries; definitions of cooking terms and ingredients; and a "Texas Cook's Pantry" telling where to find hard-to-get ingredients. Texas on the Plate is a delight to use and a pleasure to read.