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<\/span><\/span>Texas Reads<\/span>>> archive<\/span><\/a><\/span>Glenn Dromgoole<\/span><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n6.3.2018\u00a0 Two Texas books gain national attention<\/h1>\n
Two best-selling Austin authors have penned new books about Texas<\/span> that garnered glowing reviews this spring in national publications such as the Wall Street Journal<\/span> and the New York Times.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/lonestarliterary.etypegoogle10.com\/sites\/lonestarliterary.etypegoogle10.com\/files\/description\/wright%2c%20god%20save%20texas_cover%20sm.jpg\")
<\/div>\n<\/a><\/span><\/span>Lawrence Wright,<\/span> who won the Pulitzer Prize in 2007 for The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9\/11,<\/span> published God Save Texas: A Journey into the Soul of the Lone Star State<\/span><\/a><\/span> (Alfred A. Knopf, $27.95 hardcover).<\/p>\nBryan Mealer,<\/span> co-author of the 2009 best-seller The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind,<\/span> produced The Kings of Big Spring: God, Oil, and One Family\u2019s Search for the American Dream<\/span><\/a><\/span> (Flatiron Books, $27.99 hardcover).<\/p>\nGod Save Texas<\/span> is not so much a narrative with a storyline as it is a collection of insightful and entertaining personal essays or commentaries about Texas politics, oil, culture, music, cities, regions and politics. Did I mention politics?<\/p>\n\u201cI\u2019ve lived in Texas most of my life,\u201d Wright says, \u201cand I\u2019ve come to appreciate what the state symbolizes, both to people who live here and to those who view it from afar.<\/p>\n
\u201cTexans see themselves as confident, hardworking, and neurosis free. Outsiders view Texas as \u2026 a place where rambunctious and disavowed impulses run wild.<\/p>\n
\u201cIndeed, it\u2019s an irony that the figure who most embodies the values people associate with the state is a narcissistic Manhattan billionaire now sitting in the Oval Office.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wright sees the state as something of a microcosm of America, blending \u201cthe South, the West, the plains, Hispanic and immigrant communities, the border, the divide between the rural areas and the cities,\u201d so what happens in Texas \u201ctends to disproportionately affect the rest of the nation.\u201d<\/p>\n
In that regard, he writes, \u201cI think Texas has nurtured an immature political culture that has done terrible damage to the state and to the nation.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/lonestarliterary.etypegoogle10.com\/sites\/lonestarliterary.etypegoogle10.com\/files\/description\/mealer%2c%20kings%20of%20big%20spring_cover%20sm2.jpg\")
<\/div>\n<\/a><\/span>Bryan Mealer\u2019s The Kings of Big Spring<\/span> deals with the economic and spiritual ups and downs of four generations of his Texas family.<\/p>\nMuch of the story revolves around his father\u2019s decision in 1981, at age twenty-seven, to move from Alvin, Texas, back to Big Spring to join his flamboyant childhood friend Grady Cunningham in the oil business.<\/p>\n
One night Grady called and asked, \u201cHow\u2019d you like to be a millionaire?\u201d For Bryan\u2019s dad, it was an easy decision \u2014 and one he would soon regret.<\/p>\n
For a while, the Mealer family lived the high life in Big Spring as oil prices soared. Then, of course, came the bust.<\/p>\n
Along the way, through four generations, Mealer writes, \u201cthere was love and heartbreak, sin and redemption, small victories and unbearable tragedy, and laughter when little else could save us. We drew our strength from the enduring power of our own flesh and blood.\u201d<\/p>\n
* * * * *<\/p>\n
Glenn Dromgoole<\/span> writes about Texas books and authors. Contact him at g.dromgoole@suddenlink.net.<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n <\/a><\/span><\/span>Lawrence Wright,<\/span> who won the Pulitzer Prize in 2007 for The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9\/11,<\/span> published God Save Texas: A Journey into the Soul of the Lone Star State<\/span><\/a><\/span> (Alfred A. Knopf, $27.95 hardcover).<\/p>\n Bryan Mealer,<\/span> co-author of the 2009 best-seller The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind,<\/span> produced The Kings of Big Spring: God, Oil, and One Family\u2019s Search for the American Dream<\/span><\/a><\/span> (Flatiron Books, $27.99 hardcover).<\/p>\n God Save Texas<\/span> is not so much a narrative with a storyline as it is a collection of insightful and entertaining personal essays or commentaries about Texas politics, oil, culture, music, cities, regions and politics. Did I mention politics?<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve lived in Texas most of my life,\u201d Wright says, \u201cand I\u2019ve come to appreciate what the state symbolizes, both to people who live here and to those who view it from afar.<\/p>\n \u201cTexans see themselves as confident, hardworking, and neurosis free. Outsiders view Texas as \u2026 a place where rambunctious and disavowed impulses run wild.<\/p>\n \u201cIndeed, it\u2019s an irony that the figure who most embodies the values people associate with the state is a narcissistic Manhattan billionaire now sitting in the Oval Office.\u201d<\/p>\n Wright sees the state as something of a microcosm of America, blending \u201cthe South, the West, the plains, Hispanic and immigrant communities, the border, the divide between the rural areas and the cities,\u201d so what happens in Texas \u201ctends to disproportionately affect the rest of the nation.\u201d<\/p>\n In that regard, he writes, \u201cI think Texas has nurtured an immature political culture that has done terrible damage to the state and to the nation.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/span>Bryan Mealer\u2019s The Kings of Big Spring<\/span> deals with the economic and spiritual ups and downs of four generations of his Texas family.<\/p>\n Much of the story revolves around his father\u2019s decision in 1981, at age twenty-seven, to move from Alvin, Texas, back to Big Spring to join his flamboyant childhood friend Grady Cunningham in the oil business.<\/p>\n One night Grady called and asked, \u201cHow\u2019d you like to be a millionaire?\u201d For Bryan\u2019s dad, it was an easy decision \u2014 and one he would soon regret.<\/p>\n For a while, the Mealer family lived the high life in Big Spring as oil prices soared. Then, of course, came the bust.<\/p>\n Along the way, through four generations, Mealer writes, \u201cthere was love and heartbreak, sin and redemption, small victories and unbearable tragedy, and laughter when little else could save us. We drew our strength from the enduring power of our own flesh and blood.\u201d<\/p>\n * * * * *<\/p>\n Glenn Dromgoole<\/span> writes about Texas books and authors. Contact him at g.dromgoole@suddenlink.net.<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n