Books
Nation State
Two new books from big-time publishers tell our mythic story yet again. Does anybody outside of Texas care?
Book Stories
Bum Books
These titles are sure to get a laugh—or at least a smile—from even the most somber bookworms. [January 2004]
Eye On America
The co-authors of a new book about the assassination of JFK talk about how that tragic event changed the way the media cover news. [November 2003]
Interview by Casey Wilson
Not-So-Great Plains
Suzan-Lori Parks gets the culture and cadence of West Texas right, sort of; Annie Proulx doesn't. [October 2003]
by Don Graham
Killing Time
Stephen Graham Jones's All the Beautiful Sinners is a wild-eyed thriller; Amanda Eyre Ward's Sleep Toward Heaven is a tale of grief, forgiveness, and the death penalty. [August 2003]
by Mike Shea
Not Moving On
Fifteen years after Larry McMurtry announced he was through writing novels, he shows no sign of letting up. For this we should be thankful. [May 2003]
by Don Graham
Master Class
No one took the literature of Texas or the Southwest seriously until J. Frank Dobie put it, and us, on the map. [January 2003]
by Don Graham
Ranch Undressing
Writer-at-large Don Graham discusses this month's cover story "The Secret History," and his forthcoming book on the King Ranch, King of Texas. [December 2002]
Entrevista con Mario Vargas Llosa
[November 2002]
Days of Their Lives
Novels about college classmates reconnecting and rekindling at reunion time are nothing new, but Tim O'Brien's July, July succeeds with honors. [October 2002]
by Mike Shea
The Buzz
Kathy Hepinstall is one of four underappreciated Texas writers you should be reading this summer. [August 2002]
by Mike Shea
Giant
Master of the Senate, Robert Caro's third volume on the life of Lyndon Johnson, is an exhaustive study of power, persuasion, and private parts. [May 2002]
by Don Graham
Hooked
When Matt Clark succumbed to cancer in 1998, the young writer left behind an inventive unpublished novel called Hook Man Speaks. Then his friends stepped in-and brought the book back from the dead. [March 2002]
by Mike Shea
Catcher in the Raw
Forty years after its publication, Horseman, Pass By is still one of Larry McMurtry's finest novels—and as groundbreaking as J. D. Salinger's masterpiece. [December 2001]
by Don Graham
The Plot Sickens
Sandra Brown's latest novel-and her umpteenth best-seller-is called Envy. Funny, that's the last feeling I get when I read her work. [November 2001]
by Mike Shea
The Write Brothers
A memoir conjures up Donald Barthelme—and sheds light on his talented siblings. [August 2001]
by Don Graham
West Meets East
In Sarah Bird's finest novel to date, she goes halfway around the world for down-home inspiration. [June 2001]
by Mike Shea
Writers Bloc
What did Graham Greene observe about crossing the border into Mexico in 1938? Would you believe Molly Ivins was born in California? Here are my picks for the fifty greatest literary moments in Texas, plus a roster of leading lights who are from here—and some who aren't. [May 2001]
by Don Graham
Knightmare
Aaron Latham's new novel about a cowboy Camelot gets lost in the bull. [April 2001]
by Don Graham
Grist for Mills
A collection of the letters of influential sociologist C. Wright Mills shows that his radical ideas were grounded in his Texas upbringing. [March 2001]
Cooper's Town
Waco is memorialized in Madison Cooper's Sironia, Texas, the longest novel ever published in the U.S.—and one of the oddest. [November 2000]
by Carol Dawson
The Pits
The problem with Mary Karr's latest confessional memoir, Cherry, is that she won't stop confessing. [October 2000]
by Don Graham
Live and Learn
East Texas native George Dawson couldn't read until he was 98. Now, at 102, he's written a memoir. Next up: a high school equivalency diploma — but no driving. [February 2000]
Chariots in the Bedroom
Our reviewer, whose capacity for punishment is apparently boundless, reports on ten best-selling paperback books. [March 1974]
My Library
