Articles tagged: Books
Writer Rick Bass Fights for 20 Grizzly Bears
The author’s new collection of essays is a Texas naturalist’s scrapbook of the Lone Star State. It’s also a deep look at the natural world.
Rick Bass wants us to appreciate the beautiful things in nature and do our best not to squander them. The 63-year-old Tex-pat has long been known as a gifted na...Read More
On Daily Life in County Line, A Former Freedmen’s Colony
Beatrice Upshaw’s memoir A Biscuit For Your Shoe seeks to preserve the history and heritage of one of East Texas’ first freedmen’s colonies.
A long time ago, or so it seems, I went to County Line for the first time and met the Upshaw family. County Line, also known as the Upshaw Community, is in nort...Read More
Is it Time to Rethink Texas Suburbia?
Two new books lay out convincing evidence that the suburbs have been unfairly maligned and overlooked.
My opinion of the suburbs changed a few years ago on my first trip to the Katy Mills Mall, a sprawling shopping center just west of Houston. The place didn’t...Read More
What’s a Bookstore for?
Saturday is Independent Bookstore Day. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, booksellers were facing razor-thin margins, an uncertain future, and the threat of Amazon.
The people who work in bookstores are, by and large, very brilliant. My co-workers at BookPeople, a large independent bookstore in Austin, were no exception. I ...Read More
‘Trust Me’ Tackles Politics, Power, and Perception
Austin author Richard Z. Santos’ debut thriller takes readers behind the scenes of corruption and scandal.
Never become the story. This is the cardinal rule for political campaign staffers, at least according to Charles O’Connell, the protagonist in Richard Z. Sant...Read More
13 Small Texas Presses to Read Right Now
These 13 Texas-based independent presses and publishers have offered diverse, boundary-pushing literature for years, even decades.
There’s no better time for reading than when you’re curled up in your home. Books offer a retreat from the chaos of the world—something we could all use a...Read More
In ‘Barn 8,’ an Unsparing Look at the Industrial Chicken Industry
Deb Olin Unferth’s darkly comic novel imagines a chicken heist gone wrong—and takes on the factory farming industry.
The average American eats about 279 eggs each year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and that’s no surprise. Eggs are cheap and available ever...Read More
Gabriel García Márquez and the (Comforting) Case for Embracing Failure
A new Austin exhibit reveals how much the acclaimed Colombian writer struggled to make a living and find success.
If you’re a writer on Twitter, there’s a fair chance this letter has popped up on your timeline in the past few days. It’s a rejection from the Ne...Read More
17 Great Books on the Border to Read Instead of ‘American Dirt’
There’s no shortage of talented Latinx writers with all kinds of stories to tell. Let’s make space for them.
If you’ve been online in the past few months, you’ve probably seen ads for American Dirt, Jeanine Cummins’ heavily promoted new novel about Mexican-Americ...Read More