Texas History
May 19, 2021
The Next Battle of the Alamo!
Is Phil Collins’s legendary Texana collection everything it’s cracked up to be? An adapted excerpt from ‘Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of an American Myth.’
Books
Reviews, profiles, and interviews that capture the diverse voices adding to Texas’s rich literary tradition
Books
May 17, 2021
‘Dumplin’’ Author Julie Murphy on Fat Positivity and Writing Queer Characters
The Fort Worth author’s new book follows a gay teen’s bid for prom queen in a fictional West Texas town.
Books
May 11, 2021
Annette Gordon-Reed Explores the Tangled Meaning of Juneteenth
In her new book ‘On Juneteenth,’ the Pulitzer Prize–winning historian takes on the Texas holiday that has gone national.
Books
May 10, 2021
‘The Hunting Wives’ Is an East Texas Thriller That Takes Women’s Relationships Seriously
May Cobb’s second novel explores how the members of a women-only shooting club love, betray, and protect one another.
Books
May 6, 2021
The Texas Rangers Tried (and Failed) to Capture Pancho Villa. The Conflict Still Shapes the Texas-Mexico Border Today.
Jeff Guinn’s ‘War on the Border’ punctures the myth of the Rangers as frontier heroes.
Books
April 30, 2021
Mary H.K. Choi’s New Novel Is a Witty, Vulnerable Immigrant Coming-of-age Story
The San Antonio–raised author’s new novel, ‘Yolk,’ is about learning to be gentle with yourself—something Choi herself is still working on.
Sports
April 29, 2021
A New Sports History Book Shows How Texas Athletes Have Always Fought for Equality
In ‘The Sports Revolution,’ Frank Guridy revisits the 1960s and ’70s, when Black, Latino, and female athletes pushed for change.
Sports
April 26, 2021
Kim Mulkey Made Texas Fall in Love With Women’s College Hoops
After 21 years in Waco, the coach who led Baylor to three NCAA titles is headed to her home state of Louisiana to take over at LSU.
Books
April 23, 2021
Texas Monthly Recommends: A Lesser-Known Larry McMurtry Book
‘Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen’ offers a glimpse at the author’s life in Archer City. Plus: a boxed wine club and food pop-ups in Houston and Austin.
Books
April 23, 2021
Opening a Small-Town Bookstore During the Pandemic Was the Craziest Thing We Ever Did
But twelve months of renovations and a few burst water pipes later, our dream came true.
Meanwhile in Texas
April 23, 2021
A McAllen Thief Pilfered $400 Worth of Spider-Man Comic Books
He confessed after someone spotted him in surveillance footage.
Books
April 19, 2021
Alone in the City of Light
Former Texas Monthly editor in chief Greg Curtis’s new book explores the years he spent rediscovering Paris after the death of his wife.
Critters
April 15, 2021
Chasing Down Birds of Prey With Ornithologist and Musician Jonathan Meiburg
His new book traces the evolution of caracaras—a strange and beautiful type of falcon.
Books
April 13, 2021
The Rise (and Occasional Dips Into Despair!) of Jenny Lawson
In her best-selling memoirs, her eclectic, taxidermy-filled San Antonio bookstore, and her unvarnished tweets, the author makes light of her darkest times—and helps her readers make light of theirs.
Books
April 13, 2021
In Her Debut, ‘Leaving Isn’t the Hardest Thing,’ Author Lauren Hough Keeps Returning to Texas
In her funny, vulnerable essay collection ‘Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing,’ Hough takes on the cult she grew up in, coming to terms with being a closeted lesbian, and her complex relationship with her home state.
Books
April 9, 2021
When the Political Gets Personal
Veteran Austin journalist Bill Minutaglio’s latest book is a crowd-pleasing account of heated political battles in Texas over the past 150 years. But does it get the big picture right?
Books
April 5, 2021
How the Elephants at the Houston Zoo Helped an Austin Author
S. Kirk Walsh used her time with the animals and their caretakers for her new book, ‘The Elephant of Belfast.’
Books
March 26, 2021
The Larry McMurtry I Knew
I caught my first glimpse of the 'Lonesome Dove' author on the streets of Archer City when I was a teenager. It was an encounter that shaped the rest of my life.
Books
March 22, 2021
My Life With Conan the Barbarian
Growing up in a community not even big enough for a post office, I lost myself in the stories of the warrior who launched the sword and sorcery genre. It would be years before I learned that his creator had also been raised in small-town Texas.
Books
March 22, 2021
Even at a Funeral, LBJ and Lady Bird Couldn’t Make Their Peace With the Kennedys
This exclusive excerpt from a new biography of the late first lady chronicles an emotionally fraught experience in the wake of Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination.
Books
March 19, 2021
New Book Explores the Hidden History of Black Pitmasters
Award-winning food writer Adrian Miller highlights their contributions in ‘Black Smoke.’
Books
March 5, 2021
Texas Monthly Recommends: An Old-fashioned General Store in Houston
Plus: a coming-of-age novel set in El Paso and new music from Post Malone and Black Pumas.
Books
March 2, 2021
How Hank the Cowdog Made John R. Erickson the King of the Canine Canon
He wanted to become a serious literary novelist, like Faulkner or Hemingway. Fortunately for millions of Hank the Cowdog fans, he failed.
Books
March 2, 2021
Meet the Comedian Whose New Poetry Book Is as Discomfiting as Her Cabaret Act
Houston-raised actor and stand-up star Catherine Cohen confronts anxiety and narcissism in a self-deprecating collection of poems.
Books
January 28, 2021
Why Is the Death Penalty on the Decline in Texas?
Maurice Chammah’s “Let the Lord Sort Them” is a searing history of the rise and fall of capital punishment.
Books
January 20, 2021
Texas’s Most Famous Historian Looks Back at His Own, Legendary Life
Walter Prescott Webb’s previously unpublished memoir recounts the experiences that shaped his best-known—and most controversial—works.
Books
December 26, 2020
Ten Texas Books We Loved in 2020
Looking for a great read over the holidays? From fiction to memoir, cooking to comics, Texas Monthly writers recommend a few favorites.
Books
December 16, 2020
From the Editor: Books Are Back
We signed a deal to produce four books over the next four years. The first volume will go on sale next fall.
Books
December 16, 2020
The Best Things in Texas 2021: Matthew McConaughey’s ‘Greenlights’
In one of the year's best memoirs, truth is often stranger than fiction.
Books
December 14, 2020
Remembering Karl Kilian, Founder of Houston’s Brazos Bookstore
He helped make the city the literary powerhouse it is today.
Books
December 12, 2020
We Need to Talk About Secession
With chatter about Texas leaving the union on the rise, two new books remind us what it was like the last time we tried to go it alone.
Books
November 28, 2020
In Her Tender Poetry Collection, Lucy Griffith Commemorates a West Texas Figure
The San Antonio native's debut book, about a woman known for riding her burro along remote roads, recently won two major poetry awards.
Books
November 20, 2020
The Thrills of Houston’s 1970s-Era Friday Night Wrestling Come Alive in a Stunning Photo Book
Nearly fifty years ago, photographer Geoff Winningham spent months documenting wrestlers, and the fans who cheered them on, for his book ‘Friday Night in the Coliseum.’
Books
November 13, 2020
A Riveting New Photo Book Shares Vulnerable Portraits of the Football Team That Inspired ‘Friday Night Lights’
Thirty years after Buzz Bissinger’s bestseller chronicled the Permian Panthers’ 1988 season, these black and white photos are as compelling as ever.
Books
November 10, 2020
Emmanuel Acho on His New Book, ‘Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man’
"My advice for allies is to just let people know, first and foremost, that you care," says the Dallas native.
Books
October 30, 2020
Texas Monthly Recommends: A Soothing Japanese Bookstore in Houston, Austin, and North Texas
Plus, a psychedelic music festival, Fat Tony's new album, and a book that casts a critical eye on the true-crime genre.
Film & TV
October 30, 2020
How to Scare Yourself Like a Texan
A selection of Texas-bred horror films, books, and TV episodes to indulge in during the spooky times.
Books
October 28, 2020
Matthew McConaughey’s Memoir Doesn’t Dispel His Own Mythology—But Does Challenge It
In his recently released memoir, the Texan actor spins tall tales that just so happen to be true.
Books
October 28, 2020
This Lawyer Works to Free Incarcerated Victims of the War on Drugs. It All Started With Her Mom’s Arrest.
In a blistering memoir, attorney Brittany K. Barnett explores the traumatic aftermath of the war on drugs.
Books
October 26, 2020
Texas Book Festival 2020
The Austin-based celebration of literary culture begins October 31.
Film & TV
October 16, 2020
Selena Gomez Could Be Your Next Scream Queen
Plus, Demi Lovato releases an anti-Trump song, Sandra Bullock gets back into rom-coms, and the Legendary Stardust Cowboy gets the documentary treatment.
Books
October 14, 2020
Six Good Texas Book Festival Reads
This year’s festival is all-virtual, but its lineup is still all-star, as demonstrated by this trio of recent books from Texas authors.
Film & TV
October 9, 2020
Hollywood, Texas: ‘Dazed and Confused’ Cast to Reunite Online, Online, Online
Plus, Kacey Musgraves meets Scooby Doo, Borat meets Sid Miller, and Austin meets ‘Walker, Texas Ranger.’
Books
October 8, 2020
MacArthur Fellow Cristina Rivera Garza Believes That Writing Is an Act of Hope
The Houston author, who blurs boundaries of genre, language, and culture, says she writes in part to imagine a better world.
Film & TV
October 7, 2020
‘News of the World,’ Tom Hanks’s First Western, Is the Perfect Role for ‘America’s Dad’
The film adaptation of Utopia author Paulette Jiles’s acclaimed novel finds Hanks shepherding a young girl across 1870s Texas.
Books
September 28, 2020
‘Loving Sports When They Don’t Love You Back’ Is an Ethical Guide for Fans
Authors Jessica Luther and Kavitha A. Davidson say it's time for sports fans to grapple with the industry's systemic injustices.
Books
September 20, 2020
Remembering Jan Reid, Distinctive Voice in Texas Letters
The longtime Texas Monthly contributor introduced the Austin music scene to the rest of the world.
Books
September 17, 2020
A North Texas Teacher Wanted a Superhero His Latino Students Could Relate to, so He Created One
Hector Rodriguez’s hit comic book series, El Peso Hero, is now set to become a film.
Books
September 16, 2020
The Late, Great Bud Shrake’s Last, Great Novel
The funny and brutal ‘Hollywood Mad Dogs’ was inspired by the Texas writer's experience working in Hollywood with the legendary—and very demanding—Steve McQueen.
Books
August 21, 2020
Texas Monthly Recommends: UT’s Summer Reading List
Plus: a free fridge project in Austin, novels by Jennifer duBois, and Garden Marcus’s soothing TikToks.