July 2006

Will Clarke. The Worthy

In this fratboy/ghost story, Conrad Sutton is dead at age 19 and seeks revenge against his murderer. The only problem is that Conrad needs a body to effect any real change in the "meat world," so he learns the dark art of possession.

June 2006

Sarah Bird. The Flamenco Academy

The place is Albuquerque. Cyndi Rae Hrncir, called Rae, seventeen and shy, is twice spellbound, first by high school bad girl Didi ("Dirty Deeds") Steinberg, already embarked on a search for stardom, then by a devastatingly handsome young flamenco guitarist, Tomas Montenegro. Soon the girls are in college, where they abandon themselves to the disciplines and demands of the university's flamenco academy and to the hypnotic storytelling of their teacher, Dona Carlota, Tomas's great-aunt.

May 2006

No Selection

April 2006

Cristina Henriquez. Come Together, Fall Apart

March 2006

No Selection

February 2006

Gail Caldwell. A Strong West Wind

In this memoir set on the high plains of Texas, Pulitzer Prize winner Gail Caldwell transforms into art what it is like to come of age in a particular time and place. A Strong West Wind begins in the 1950s in the wilds of the Texas Panhandle - a place of both boredom and beauty, its flat horizons broken only by oil derricks, grain elevators, and church steeples. Its story belongs to a girl who grew up surrounded by dust storms and cattle ranches and summer lightning, who took refuge from the vastness of the land and the ever-present wind by retreating into books.

January 2006

Ana Marie Cox. Dog Days

From the outrageous and notorious voice behind the popular political blog "Wonkette" comes this razor-sharp comic novel that chronicles the romantic and political life of a young campaign staffer in Washington, D.C.

December 2005

No Selection

November 2005

Mark Gimenez. The Color of Law

Clark McCall, ne'er-do-well son of Texas millionaire senator and presidential hopeful Mack McCall, puts a major crimp in his father's election plans when he winds up murdered-apparently by Shawanda Jones, a heroin-addicted hooker-after a tawdry night of booze, drugs, and rough sex. Scott Fenney, a poor boy turned college football hero turned elite law firm partner, is assigned to provide Shawanda's pro bono defense after the federal judge on the case hears him deliver an inspiring, altruistic-and completely insincere-speech to the Dallas bar association.

October 2005

Alan Lee. The Lord of the Rings Sketchbook

 

September 2005

Julie Powell. Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen: How One Girl Risked Her Marriage, Her Job and Her Sanity to Master the Art of Living

Julie Powell needs something to break the monotony of her life. So, she invents a deranged assignment: She will take her mother's dog-eared copy of Julia Child's 1961 classic, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," and cook all 524 recipes in the span of just one year.

August 2005

No Selection

July 2005

Josh Emmons. The Loss of Leon Meed

June 2005

Michael Craig. The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King

A tale of outsized egos, appetites, and ambitions, this completely true, heart-stopping story tells of one man, 20 million dollars, and the most expensive game of poker ever played.

May 2005

Rick Bass. The Diezmo

The Diezmo tells the story of the Mier Expedition, one of the most absurd and tragic military adventures in the history of Texas.

May 2005

Alexander Parsons. In the Shadows of the Sun

Set in the high desert badlands of New Mexico and the ravaged, war-torn landscape of the Philippine jungle, In the Shadows of the Sun is the story of the Stricklands, a ranching family struggling to hold on to their way of life in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor.

April 2005

Jonathan Safran Foer. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Nine-year-old Oskar Schell is a precocious Francophile who idolizes Stephen Hawking and plays the tambourine extremely well. He's also a boy struggling to come to terms with his father's death in the World Trade Center attacks. As he searches New York City for the lock that fits a mysterious key he left behind, Oskar discovers much more than he could have imagined.

March 2005

Kinky Friedman. Ten Little New Yorkers

Greenwich Village is the setting for Ten Little New Yorkers, a tale of murder and mayhem as only Friedman can warble it and featuring his usual suspects, including Ratso - Dr. Watson to Kinky's singular Sherlock Holmes. As the clues and bodies pile up and the cops strongarm Kinky as their man, he has to jump through hoops to find the real killer, all the while maintaining his outrage and, of course, his innocence. The murderer may be someone close to Kinky, which leads to a shocker of an ending that will surely take Kinky devotees completely by surprise.

February 2005

Billy Joe Shaver & Brad Regan. Honky Tonk Hero

In this autobiography written with the assistance of Brad Reagan, songwriter Billy Joe Shaver looks back over a life that some might call a miracle of survival.

January 2005

Nick Kotz. Judgement Days: LBJ, MLK, and the Laws that Changed America

December 2004

No Selection

November 2004

George Friedman. America's Secret War

October 2004

Nick Flynn. Another Bullshit Night in Suck City

September 2004

Kitty Kelley. The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty

As the Bush family has risen to dominance, so too they have been master orchestrators of their own public image, acting and operating under the shield of privacy their money and status have always afforded them. Until now. The First Lady of unauthorized biography now reckons with the first family of the United States--and the result is at once a rich and shocking history and a very human portrait of the world's most powerful dynasty.

August 2004

Ben Rehder. Flat Crazy/Scared Money

Things get out of hand in Blanco County when the local population deals with a mythical beast called the chupacabra. Of course, it doesn't help game warden John Marlin's cause when a dead body turns up with a suspicious fang-like wound in its neck.

July 2004

Julie Speed. Julie Speed

Julie Speed's craftsmanship and attention to detail bring to mind the work of painters from the fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Renaissance. Unlike those artists, however, Speed is inspired by an almost limitless number of easily available sources and is unencumbered by the sexual and societal restrictions of past centuries, which gives her the freedom to paint what she wants and the way she wants.

June 2004

John Graves. Myself and Strangers: A Memoir of Apprenticeship

In Myself and Strangers, the author of Goodbye to a River and other nonfiction classics recounts his long, winding journey toward becoming a writer in the years after world War II."

May 2004

James Hynes. Kings of Infinite Space

Paul Trilby is having a bad day, maybe even a bad life.  His wife has left him and he's ended up working as a temp writer for the General Services Division of the Texas Department of General Services.  He starts to notice that things are really wrong when bulges appear in the ceiling and sounds come from the air-conditioning vents and there are strange men in town wearing pocket protectors.

April 2004

Myléne Dressler. The Floodmakers

In taut, sparse, lyrical prose that mirrors the restraint and quiet desperation of its inhabitants, "The Floodmakers" delivers a carefully drawn glimpse into the complexities and frailties of family.

March 2004

Stephanie Elizondo Griest. Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing, and Havana

Desperate to escape South Texas, Stephanie Elizondo Griest dreamed of becoming a foreign correspondent. So she headed to Russia looking for some excitement commencing what would become a four-year, twelve-nation Communist bloc tour that shattered her preconceived notions of the Evil Empire.

February 2004

H.W. Brands. Lone Star Nation: How a Ragtag Army of Courageous Volunteers Won the Battle for Texas Independence

A richly textured history of one of the most fascinating and colorful eras in American history--the Texas Revolution--and its bloody and precarious journey to statehood, written by bestselling historian Brands.

January 2004

Walter Cunningham. The All-American Boys

A no-holds-barred candid memoir by a former Marine jet jockey and physicist who became NASA's second civilian astronaut. Walter Cunningham presents the astronauts in all their strengths and their weaknesses.

December 2003

Jim Lewis. The King is Dead

The story of two men - a father and a son - whose contrasting lives reflect the dramatic shifts in the last half century of American life.

November 2003

DBC Pierre. Vernon God Little

In the town jail of Martirio, Texas--under the terrifying care of the dynastic Gurie family, and wearing only his New Jack trainers and underpants--15-year-old Vernon Little is in trouble. His friend, the mysterious Jesus, has just blown away 16 of his classmates before turning the gun on himself.

October 2003

Gregory Curtis. Disarmed: The Story of the Venus de Milo

A rich tale of historical intrigue, this is the story of the Venus de Milo, one of the most famous works of art of all time.

September 2003

David Lindsey. The Rules of Silence

Titus Cain is living an idyllic life most can only dream about. He's a self-made multimillionaire and founder of a successful software company. His employees adore him. He has a warm and loving wife. His home is a large but unpretentious country house atop ten acres of beautiful Texas Hill Country. And Titus is the kind of man who knows he has a lot to be thankful for." "Then Cayetano "Tano" Luquin walks into his life one summer evening escorted by three armed assassins. They've come for Titus, but this is no ordinary kidnapping.

August 2003

Ann Richards. I'm Not Slowing Down: Winning My Battle with Osteoporosis

Forty-four million Americans will face osteoporosis in some form, thirty million of whom are women. In 1996, after falling and fracturing her hand, Ann Richards went for a bone density test. She was diagnosed with osteopenia, an early stage of osteoporosis. After witnessing both of her grandmothers and her mother fall victim to the disease, Richards was determined to overcome its incapacitating effects. She began a physician-approved regimen of medication and dramatically changed her lifestyle. In I'm Not Slowing Down, the former Texas governor, known for her saucy straight talk, and Richard U. Levine, M.D., tell women what they need to know to combat this devastating disease.

July 2003

Tim Gautreaux. The Clearing

In the years before World War I, Byron Aldridge led a charmed life as the charismatic heir apparent to a Pennsylvania timber empire; and to his younger brother, Randolph, he was both guide and idol. But he returned from France a different man and was not home long before those festering memories sent him drifting from one settlement to another, working as a lawman, and then disappearing altogether.

June 2003

Stephen Graham Jones. All the Beautiful Sinners

Texas Deputy Sheriff Jim Doe is chasing after the Tin Man, a sociopath who has been abducting Indian children in the heartland for a decade. Jones, who is a member of the Blackfeet Nation, infuses this cleverly plotted detective story with Indian lore.

May 2003

Oscar Casares. Brownsville: Stories

At the Country's Edge, on the Mexican border, Brownsville, Texas, is a town like many others. It is a place where men and women work hard to create better lives for their families, where people sometimes bear grudges against their neighbors, where love blossoms only to fade, and where the one real certainty is that life holds surprises. In his sparkling debut, Oscar Casares creates a cast of unforgettable characters confronting everyday possibilities and contradictions.

 

May 2003

Dao Strom. Grass Roof, Tin Roof

This stunning debut novel centers on a Vietnamese family resettling and living in the isolation of California gold country. Strom investigates, in a contemporary context, the myth of westward progress and the consequences of cultural displacement.

 

May 2003

Amanda Eyre Ward. Sleep Toward Heaven

How do we forgive the unforgivable? First-time novelist Ward explores this question with a delicate blend of compassion, humor and realism. Three women whose lives converge during a stifling Texas summer have followed completely different paths in their 29 years.

April 2003

David Liss. The Coffee Trader

With wit, imagination, and mystery, Liss depicts a world of subterfuge, danger, and repressed longing, where religious and cultural traditions clash with the demands of a new and exciting way of doing business. Readers of historical suspense and lovers of coffee will be up all night with this intriguing novel.

March 2003

Mimi Swartz. Power Failure: The Inside Story of the Collapse of Enron

Tells the gritty, behind-the-scenes story of Enron's high-flying, anything-goes culture, the excesses of its power- and pleasure-hungry executives, and their dangerous addiction to risking everything for even-higher profits.

February 2003

Joe R. Lansdale. A Fine Dark Line

For young Stanley Mitchell, Jr., 1958 is quickly becoming a year of newfound joys and thrilling adventure. Beginning with the discovery of hidden love letters, and an uneasy meeting with a former reservation policeman, Stanley learns about blues music, Sherlock Holmes, racism, and lost dreams.

January 2003

Bob Schieffer. This Just In: What I Couldn't Tell You on TV

Filled with behind-the-scenes tales and surprising scoops, "This Just In" shares stories of four decades of presidents, wars, crooks, and congressmen from one of television's best-liked journalists--the moderator of "Face the Nation."

December 2002

Sarah Bird. The Yokota Officers Club

In this gutsy new novel from the author of "Virgin of the Rodeo", ex-military brat Bernadette "Bernie" Root speaks. She has never really noticed what a peculiar bunch of nomads her Air Force family is, and upon their return to Japan, she discovers a terrible secret.

November 2002

Tim O'Brien. July, July

Terrifically rich in story, full of unforgettable characters, "July, July" is the definitive novel of the baby boom generation, the men and women whose lives were molded and defined by the 1960s. Set at the 30th high school reunion of Minnesota's Darton Hall College class of 1969, it provides a portrait of those launched into adulthood at the moment when this country, too, lost its innocence.

October 2002

Bud Shrake. Billy Boy

September 2002

Steven Weinberg. Facing Up: Science and Its Cultural Adversaries

Each of these essays, which span fifteen years, struggles in one way or another with the necessity of facing up to the discovery that the laws of nature are impersonal, with no hint of a special status for human beings.

August 2002

Mark Jude Poirier. Goats: A Novel

Hilarious and intimate, Goats challenges the conventional idea of family and home, while drawing us deeper into Ellis's journey into manhood. Mark Jude Poirier has an uncanny gift for chronicling the human condition and bringing to life a varied yet dispassionate landscape.

July 2002

Ethan Hawke. Ash Wednesday: A Novel

From the multitalented actor and writer Ethan Hawke: a piercing novel of love, marriage, and renewal. Jimmy is AWOL from the army, but--with characteristic fierceness and terror--he's about to embark on the biggest commitment of his life.

June 2002

Paulette Jiles. Enemy Women: A Novel

The Colley family are modest farmers in the Missouri Ozarks. The Colleys try to remain neutral, a fact ignored by the Union militia who confiscate their livestock, burn their farm, and arrest their daughter on charges of "enemy collaboration." Yet as this innocent young woman soon discovers, fate can have a double edge. In unsentimental yet elegant prose, Jiles reveals the universal horrors of war and its irreparable damage, and introduces a wonderful new character in a memorable story.

May 2002

Jan Reid. The Bullet Meant for Me: A Memoir

Rich with insight and vividly told, this is the powerful memoir of a Texas journalist who almost died for being a "tough guy" and got his life back being a man.

April 2002

James Carlos Blake. A World of Thieves

A haunting thriller of blood and treachery from the author of "Wildwood Boys." Set in 1928 New Orleans, "A World of Thieves" revolves around Sonny LaSalle, a young student who worships his uncles until he discovers that life as an outlaw isn't quite what he expected it to be.

March 2002

Kathy Hepinstall. The Absence of Nectar

If only Alice could get rid of her new stepfather, Simon Jester. No one wants to believe that the pieces of his tragic past don't seem to fit-or that he is trying to poison Alice and her older brother. Until the one night her mother comes in to kiss her goodnight and instead whispers a single word..."RUN." (Audio book)

February 2002

Matt Clark. Hook Man Speaks

January 2002

Mylène Dressler. The Deadwood Beetle