Ruth Pennebaker

  • What’s in a Nombre?

    All you have to do is move and you get this question 600 times a day: “What’s your new address?” Funny they—the friends, the [...] Full Story

  • Home Soul

    We’ve lived in our house in West Austin for almost 14 years—the longest we’ve ever lived anywhere. Our kids finished school here, brooding and [...] Full Story

  • One Texan’s Xmas List

    I’ve finally learned that you have to ask for what you want in this life. I know, I know—getting what you want is another [...] Full Story

  • Bloody Bloody Tea Party

    When I wasn’t working on a migraine, when I wasn’t despondent about the future of the world, when I was feeling halfway brave, I [...] Full Story

  • What’s Remarkable is How Serious It Was

    My husband and I were two of the hundreds of thousands who showed up for the Rally to Restore Sanity in Washington, D.C. Saturday.  [...] Full Story

  • Unearthing Aurora

    Lost Books of Texas “Terms of Endearment is a book?” a well-read friend asked recently. “I didn’t know that. I thought it was just [...] Full Story

  • If the Revolution is Over, Does That Mean We Won?

    People of a certain age are always talking, sadly and nostalgically, about the bright, unfulfilled dreams of their youth. I’m of a certain age [...] Full Story

  • Lost in the Reads

    You get rid of … your books?” one of my younger friends asked. She looked aghast—as if I’d just announced that I ate my [...] Full Story

  • The Big O

    Second in a series on recession-era Texas. ODESSA-Oh, sure. You can laugh about this flat, dry part of the world, where the streets are [...] Full Story

  • Commentary

    Betty Jo Harper, a silver-haired, bespectacled teacher from tiny Paint Creek, Texas, has numbered many successes in her 83 years. Every spring, her prize-winning [...] Full Story