Books
A New Book on the American Political Divide Calls, Unconvincingly, for Civility
Swamp City Serenade
Bryan Washington’s remarkable debut book, "Lot," captures Houston in meticulous, tenderhearted detail.
The wonder of Houston can sometimes be difficult to explain to those not born and bred in the Bayou City. Yes, it is indeed sprawling, as so many have said pejo...Read More
A Sweeping History of Texas Blues Celebrates Little-Known Musicians
More than 50 years in the making, The Blues Come to Texas is an encyclopedic tome stuffed with surprising trivia.
I have a faded copy of the July|August 1965 issue of the magazine Blues Unlimited, which includes an essay, “Working on the Project – T for Texas; T for Toi...Read More
Elizabeth McCracken’s ‘Bowlaway’ Spins a Dark, Magical Tale of Love, Loss and Bowling
The Austin author is mostly concerned with pain: how we inflict it on each other, and how we keep going, year after year, as our burdens pile up.
“They found a body in the Salford Cemetery, but aboveground and alive.” That thunderbolt of a sentence opens Elizabeth McCracken’s new novel, Bowlaway, an...Read More
Valeria Luiselli’s Third Novel Reckons with the Trauma Inflicted on Migrant Kids
Lost Children Archive is not only an indictment of U.S. immigration policy, but a requiem memorializing every child who has ever lost their right to a childhood.
Early in Valeria Luiselli’s virtuosic new novel, Lost Children Archive, the narrator realizes she has entered an ethical minefield. She makes radio documentar...Read More
‘Last Woman Standing’ Tackles Toxic Masculinity and Keeps the Pages Turning
Amy Gentry’s second crime novel shines with meticulous plotting, complex characters and a subversive feminist message.
Ask any member of the local comedy scene, and they might tell you they’re surprised it’s taken so long for the annual Funniest Person in Austin stand-up con...Read More
The Texas Observer’s Best Features of 2018
Our favorite longreads of the year.
The Texas Observer’s Best Features of 2018 Our favorite longreads of the year. – by Rose Cahalan and Forrest Wilder December 26, 2018 Like children, it...Read More
‘Life Was Her Art’: Nadine Eckhardt Remembered as an Influential Cultural Conduit in Texas and Washington
A lifelong progressive activist, Eckhardt always managed to straddle both the establishment and counterculture.
Nadine Brammer Eckhardt, first wife and muse of novelist Billy Lee Brammer (The Gay Place) and second wife of Texas Democratic Congressman Robert C. Eckhardt, d...Read More
Our 10 Favorite Texas Books of 2018
Politics, immigration, poetry, LSD, art and yes, vampires: There’s a little something for everyone on this list.
If there’s a bright side to the fact that, politically speaking, we spent 2018 still deep in what people on Twitter wearily call “the darkest timeline,” i...Read More
The Lone Star State Teems with Snakes, Lizards and Toads in ‘Herping Texas’
Michael Smith and Clint King's entertaining and rambling book recounts years of cold-blooded adventuring.
When I was a kid, I spent a lot of time hunting for critters. The Dallas suburbs are a resolutely tamed landscape, with little in the way of big wildlife. But i...Read More