Robert Leleux
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Abusing Their Religion: Lawrence Wright’s Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, & The Prison of Belief
In Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, & the Prison of Belief, Lawrence Wright returns to his signature terrain: the outer reaches of religious faith. Full Story -
Lady Bird in her Own Words
Michael L. Gillette’s Lady Bird Johnson: An Oral History chronicles Mrs. Johnson’s journey from deep East Texas to the White house and beyond. Full Story -
South American Gothic: Edward Swift’s The Daughter of the Doctor and the Saint
Edward Swift’s latest novel, The Daughter of the Doctor and the Saint, is a tumultuous, epic work of magical realism, half The Count of Monte Cristo and half One Hundred Years of Solitude. Full Story -
Skeletons in a Small Town’s Closet
Janis Owens’ powerful new novel American Ghost recalls Lillian Smith’s Strange Fruit, the 1944 classic remembered, in part, for its brave portrayal of lynching. [...] Full Story -
Faith in a Dead-End Town
Michael Morris’ sweet, sad-eyed new novel, Man in the Blue Moon, recalls great Southern literature: beloved works such as Olive Ann Burns’ Cold Sassy [...] Full Story
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An Outlaw for Mother Earth
Diane Wilson—the author and activist who has raised such a righteous ruckus over the environmental devastation caused by BP, Formosa and Dow—has written a [...] Full Story -
Giant Scandal
Though it now boggles the mind, when Edna Ferber’s classic potboiler Giant was first published in 1952, it scandalized Texans from the Pecos to [...] Full Story -
Street Fighting Woman
Houston’s Rothko Chapel is a sublimely complex institution—part world-renowned modern art museum, part ecumenical center, part human rights forum. And so it was fitting, [...] Full Story -
Schools of Hard Knocks
Since 1954, The Texas Observer, headquartered in Austin, has specialized in fearless, award-winning investigative reporting and great writing about the strangest state in the [...] Full Story -
The Unsinkable Gertrude Barnstone
With state schools facing ruin from the Legi-slature’s upcoming budget cuts, it helps to remember that Texas liberals have a history of saving the [...] Full Story