All of these stories were great! I'm glad I bought the bound collection so I didn't have to stop reading at the end of each story. You really get to know the characters and their personalities throughout the series and are eager to find out what will happen between them next. Texas! Sage was by far my FAVORITE, then Texas! Lucky. Texas! Chase wasn't as gripping, but still very good. I plan to read them all again, and maybe again...

A large-format (8.5x11", oblong) color photo book of Big Bend National Park and vicinity. Includes shots of canyons, deserts, ghost towns, local flora and fauna, park map. 60% photos, 40% text.

Haley Mercado's family ruled the Texas mob. Ten years ago, when mob lieutenant Frank Del Brio forced an engagement ring on Haley's finger with the threat of turning her father over to the FBI, Haley knew she had to escape. With the help of a trusted family friend, Judge Bridges, Haley devised a plan to sneak off from a party at her family's house and fake drowning in the lake. Eight years later, Haley receives a call from Judge Bridges that her mother has been beaten to near death in a mugging so she races back to Texas. Disguised as a nun, Haley slips into her mother's hospital room where her mother makes her promise to go back to London so she won't be dragged into the mob like her father and brother. Before leaving town, Haley stops at the local tavern to get something to eat and runs into Luke Callaghan, the man she has always secretly loved. Luke is immediately fascinated by the beautiful blonde whom he's never met yet seems so familiar. After sharing dinner and a couple of spins around the dance floor, Luke and Haley end up spending the night in each other's arms. The next morning while Luke is in the shower, Haley again disappears from his life. A couple of days after Haley returns to London, her mother dies of a heart attack. Six weeks later, she finds out she's pregnant. Haley is ecstatic that she is having Luke's child since she'll never see him again.

Shortly after Haley's baby, Lena, is born, the FBI and Judge Bridges approach Haley in London and tell her that the heart attack her mother suffered was not from natural causes but induced and they believe that it was ordered by Frank Del Brio trying to get information on whether Haley was alive and where she was. Realizing that her daughter would never be safe until Frank was behind bars, Haley agrees to go back to Texas and work undercover for the FBI. She wants her baby to be put in the care of Luke Callaghan until she is done with her mission so the baby is safe. The Judge devises a plan to leave the baby on the ninth hole of the golf course where Luke and his three buddies golf every Sunday morning. The plan goes awry when the note pinned to the baby smears and Luke's name is unreadable and then Luke doesn't even show up. Lena is put in custody of one of the other men until they can determine who the father is. Months later when Luke does finally reappear, he is blind from an accident.

After a year of undercover work, Frank has become suspicious that the waitress working at his country club is really Haley Mercado and that the baby found on the golf course is Haley's. In order to lure Haley out of hiding, Frank kidnaps the baby and hides her for months in a farmhouse. After the FBI botches an attempt to arrest Frank, he runs off with the child. He calls Haley demanding she deliver two million in ransom. Haley turns to Luke for help. Luke is stunned and angry that Haley deceived him as she did. After hearing her story though he realizes she had no other choice. They pull together to try to save their daughter's life and find true love in the process.

What an amazing book for the price: incredible photography, solid and helpful captions, some fascinating old black-and-white photos, even a full-page oil painting of my favorite Texas scene: bluebonnets in Hill Country in the spring. This inexpensive book is a high-quality effort and very well researched. Everybody knows Texas is a vast place. But most books dwell on the cowboy scenes. In this one, Carol Highsmith and Ted Landphair catch the best of every part of the state. On one page, there might be a fabulous sunrise (or is it sunset?) shot of a windmill on the prairie, then a shot of Billy Bob's honky-tonk in Fort Worth, then a stunning city skyline shot of Dallas or Houston. Even the Dr. Pepper Museum in Waco is in this book. This is a tour, all right, at a great price. A keepsake book for sure. I gave so many away as gifts, I almost forgot to keep one for myself.

Only Jack Maguire could come up with 36 obscure Texas stories that captivate, lure and delight the reader. "Texas: Amazing but True" relates that Texas may not own its capitol; that Rice University resulted from a murder; that a Texan designed and flew an airplane two years before the Wright brothers; that Marshall, Texas was the capitol of Missouri; and on and on.

Maguire's writing is concise and moving. The ending came to soon. I wished for another 36 stories.

Richard K. Troxell

Author, "Barbecuing Around Texas" email rkt@fbg.net

Vandiver has authored many memorable books on Confederate and Civil War history. THEIR TATTERED FLAGS is a must is you are interested in the epic of the Confederacy. The author provides insight to Southern actions and thought that is not possible for less gifted writers, especially those who have not lived in the South. Read and enjoy!

I first time I read this book was 5 years ago. I still use phrases and words from this book that others find hillarious. If you are in sales, management, or just a person who needs a new twist on everyday phrases this is the book for you. I also recommend this book for all those who are moving to Texas, it will help you to understand the people and the culture better.

You don't have to be a Texan to be taken over by the feelings from Elroy Bode's book that make you say, "Uh-huh! I KNOW what you mean!" But as a Texan too far away from home, I can almost inhale the scent of cedar trees from the pages of his poignant essays about going back to his old homestead and the people who speak to his heart. It's a slow, leisurely read filled with images of places like Crider's, the "yellow-bulbed oasis in the black desert of night." I can just about feel my boots scooting across the dance floor of the old joint that has long been a Hill Country institution. The essay titled "Beer," about his boyhood anticipation of holding a slender chilled bottle and taking his first burning gulp, is priceless. This book is a must-read for anyone who loves and longs for home.

Paul Malone is a native Texas writer and visual artist. This House Of Women is his novel about the courageous heroine Hannah Hayward. She was pregnant at nineteen in 1942 as the man she loved went off to war. We follow her journey to forge a life for herself and her offspring through the decades of Texas history. This House Of Women is a powerfully narrated, stalwart story rife with emotion and full of life. Highly recommended.

Ok, it's doubtful anyone will ever read this review, but as Mr. Sasek has passed away, this is the only tribute I can leave him.

I was born in Texas, and have lived my whole life there. For many people outside of Texas, our devotion to our state and the pride we take in being Texan can be confusing. After all, most people think Texas consists of nothing but cowboys and oil wells. But those who have lived here know that Texas is far more than the sum of her parts.

As a child, my parents bought this book, and we read it together. This book made me realize how lucky I am to have been born here, and what pride I should have in my state. How odd that this lesson would be taught by a writer from Prague! True, the book does contain many of the clichés associated with Texas (such as the aforementioned cowboys and oil wells), but it really tries to show that Texas is so much more. Mostly, I remember that, instead of focusing on one city in the state, this book covered the whole territory, from El Paso to Houston. From the King Ranch to the Mexican Border. As Sasek himself said in 'Books are by People': "Doing 'This is Texas' I had to travel 3,000 miles by bus to see all I had to see!" It shows in the quality of his writing.

Honestly, however, I can say that the one thing that sticks with me most from this book is the art. Mr. Sasek was an exceptionally gifted artist with a very quirky style that made everything seem vibrant and dynamic, but still utterly approachable. If there is any finer illustration in a children's book that the image of Tent Maker Creek Canyon on pages 48 and 49 of the original hard-cover edition, I've yet to see it. Evocative, poignant, yet still fun to view, his illustrations are what made him a superior author.

If there is any one critique that can be leveled against the book, it is that the information in the book is rather dated. However, for me at least, the book makes me nostalgic for times when technology had not conquered the world, and Texas was a state of plains and prairies, as much as a state of oil and microchips.

Miroslav Sasek traveled the globe painting beautiful pictures and writing books that have touched peoples live. Of his work, I can only say this: my wife is currently pregnant with our first child, and it will be my great honor to read this book with him/her when they are old enough. There can be no greater legacy than that.